Machinations of Falar

My Wife is Amazing

2009-09-17T23:38:33Z

So, because it was rather cheap and we've been jonesing for an MMORPG fix for a while, my wife and I bought LOTRO the other day. I spent about the rest of that day trying to get it installed. It didn't work.

Then my wife tries yesterday and it worked fine. Because she has a grey thumb or something like that.

Meme

2009-09-16T00:59:12Z

This is too awesome and too ... quintessentially me ... that I can't help but do it.

Give me the title of a story I've never written, and feedback telling me what you liked best about it, and I will tell you any of: the first sentence, the last sentence, the thing that made me want to write it, the biggest problem I had while writing it, why it almost never got posted, the scene that hit the cutting room floor but that I wish I'd been able to salvage, or something else that I want readers to know.

Leaving...

2008-04-16T23:56:25Z

Given what has happened with LJ recently, I don't really want to journal here anymore. I've got a blog now at the following url.

http://falar.rowan-oak.net/

I also have an RSS feed on LJ - falar_wp (for a full text of each of my entries) or falar_oak (which shows the first paragraph or so). So. Add that if you want to keep seeing me?

I'll still be reading my friends page and all. I just won't have my stuff on their servers.

Peace.

Hello

2008-02-19T17:07:41Z

Hello all you people on the internet. Thank you for your assurances that you read this LJ.

I am also back. With DSL. In the little, little, little town I'm in. It's great to have the wires back.

Now I can stop playing Ascendancy all the time. Or not. It is, after all, TERRIBLY addictive.

Aaaaaargh! Wrrrry!

2008-02-14T18:38:34Z

So, I'm at the library. 'Cause this morning I found out who I was going to get internet from at my new digs ... well ... happens to have a ONE MONTH WAITING LIST for people. So. Yeah. I'm tracking down other options.

I thought all you people out in internet land might want to know.

Then again, none of you probably read this.

falar @ 2007-12-31T17:39:00

2007-12-31T23:39:24Z

So, ladies and gentlemen, I tried to enter another guild game project lead by the team that brought you Guild Perilous. I thought I'd be able to help and we'd be able to bring you an awesome product. I thought there wouldn't be petty stuff and we'd all be an awesome team working together to produce pure minted gold in the form of Mercenaries Anonymous. I even gave it it's uber-cool name and came up with the kickass ending to the plot.

I was wrong. As soon as we were getting down to the nitty-gritty and it wasn't just us playing in a sandbox so the GMs can take our ideas and use them, WingedCat decided to ban the most intelligent, most adamant person on the team. Unfortunately, he was also the only reason I thought there'd be anything good out of the game. So I left and let Dubs know how disappointed I was in his petty favoritism and playing us like suckers. And I'm out like gangbusters.

Well, maybe Halmar's Hammers will be rocking out shortly after, before, or during Mercenaries Anonymous. Or something even better. Because we're that awesome. Returners people know it. And now the know what MA did to their talent.

As Elisha put it, "Fucker stole your tires while you were in the gas station gettin' smokes!"

falar @ 2007-12-26T07:54:00

2007-12-26T13:54:18Z

80% Geek

Want to be a x-ray technician?

falar @ 2007-12-22T04:56:00

2007-12-22T10:56:46Z

I Am A: Lawful Good Human Monk/Cleric (2nd/1st Level)

Ability Scores:
Strength-13
Dexterity-13
Constitution-13
Intelligence-18
Wisdom-14
Charisma-14

Alignment:
Lawful Good A lawful good character acts as a good person is expected or required to act. He combines a commitment to oppose evil with the discipline to fight relentlessly. He tells the truth, keeps his word, helps those in need, and speaks out against injustice. A lawful good character hates to see the guilty go unpunished. Lawful good is the best alignment you can be because it combines honor and compassion. However, lawful good can be a dangerous alignment because it restricts freedom and criminalizes self-interest.

Race:
Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.

Primary Class:
Monks are versatile warriors skilled at fighting without weapons or armor. Good-aligned monks serve as protectors of the people, while evil monks make ideal spies and assassins. Though they don't cast spells, monks channel a subtle energy, called ki. This energy allows them to perform amazing feats, such as healing themselves, catching arrows in flight, and dodging blows with lightning speed. Their mundane and ki-based abilities grow with experience, granting them more power over themselves and their environment. Monks suffer unique penalties to their abilities if they wear armor, as doing so violates their rigid oath. A monk wearing armor loses their Wisdom and level based armor class bonuses, their movement speed, and their additional unarmed attacks per round.

Secondary Class:
Clerics act as intermediaries between the earthly and the divine (or infernal) worlds. A good cleric helps those in need, while an evil cleric seeks to spread his patron's vision of evil across the world. All clerics can heal wounds and bring people back from the brink of death, and powerful clerics can even raise the dead. Likewise, all clerics have authority over undead creatures, and they can turn away or even destroy these creatures. Clerics are trained in the use of simple weapons, and can use all forms of armor and shields without penalty, since armor does not interfere with the casting of divine spells. In addition to his normal complement of spells, every cleric chooses to focus on two of his deity's domains. These domains grants the cleric special powers, and give him access to spells that he might otherwise never learn. A cleric's Wisdom score should be high, since this determines the maximum spell level that he can cast.

Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)

Detailed Results:

Alignment:
Lawful Good ----- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (24) Neutral Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (21) Chaotic Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (20) Lawful Neutral -- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (21) True Neutral ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (18) Chaotic Neutral - XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX (17) Lawful Evil ----- XXXXXXXXXXX (11) Neutral Evil ---- XXXXXXXX (8) Chaotic Evil ---- XXXXXXX (7)
Law & Chaos:
Law ----- XXXXXXXXXX (10) Neutral - XXXXXXX (7) Chaos --- XXXXXX (6)
Good & Evil:
Good ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXXX (14) Neutral - XXXXXXXXXXX (11) Evil ---- X (1)
Race:
Human ---- XXXXXXXXXXXXX (13) Dwarf ---- XXXXXXXXXX (10) Elf ------ XXXXXXXX (8) Gnome ---- XXXXXXXX (8) Halfling - XXXXXXXX (8) Half-Elf - XXXXXXXXX (9) Half-Orc - XX (2)
Class:
Barbarian - (-29) Bard ------ (-23) Cleric ---- XXXXXX (6) Druid ----- (-23) Fighter --- (-4) Monk ------ XXXXXX (6) Paladin --- (-2) Ranger ---- (0) Rogue ----- XXXX (4) Sorcerer -- XX (2) Wizard ---- (0)

falar @ 2007-12-17T15:21:00

2007-12-17T21:20:07Z

What don't you expect to find on the wall of a juvenile delinquent's room when you do room checks?

Furry porn, that's what.

Just Goes To Show

2007-11-19T21:16:49Z

So, we're going to be running with eleven tonight and from here on out.

Just goes to show that writing letters and talking just gets ignored, then something happens and "OH CRAP, LET US COVER OUR REARS." I was trying to get 'em covered for you, but you just had to let it get this far.

Sleep

2007-11-06T12:05:42Z

BLEAH.

There are times that I actually want to sleep for a long period of time and then there are times that I just want to take a nap so I can get up and do important things. In this case, it was talk to my fiancée, the wonderful, beautiful, sexy, and charming serenadesha, but noooooo ... when Falar actually wants to get up instead of sleeping, he can't set the alarm clock correctly.

Blargh. And now my sleep schedule is going to be all whacked out from sleeping from seven PM to ... what time is this? Six AM. So not only did I miss talking to the most important person in my life for several hours, which I was quite looking forward to, I also totally screwed up my sleep schedule and will have a week or so of getting it back normalized.

Now it's time for some good old beating of the head against the wall. I mean, I didn't even get any good dreams out of it!

Breaks

2007-11-04T15:45:30Z

I'm glad I have a break after tonight because I've got far too much stuff to talk about.

Including, but not limited to, predictions, humor, queasiness, shutting out the new guy, redoing things right, leadership, having a big vocabulary, cards, paperwork, fear, being late, getting overtime, being John Malkovich, which member of Law And Order I am and being able to kick some righteous donkey.

Today I Got Stuck

2007-11-02T17:56:00Z

Today, my new boss called in to say he wouldn't make it. I had to stay for him.

There will be an entry later by the title of, "You always bring me the best violence."

Hallowe'en

2007-11-01T13:17:53Z

So, for Hallowe'en, we weren't actually to do a full costume at work. It was "Funny Hat Day" and you were supposed to wear a funny hat. On pain of pain. Well ... not much pain. Maybe an expression of displeasure. From whoever sent out the memo, which no one actually knew who said it. But there's a lot of that ... "Please see me in my office" on an unsigned memo. I mean ... what?

I decided to go as far as I probably could and still keep with the dress code. To that end, the following costume was developed:

Top Hat

Tinted Glasses

Coat

Fingerless Gloves

Pace Stick

I don't have any pictures, but I'm sure that Sha will make me dress up in it when she's here and then you'll get a picture. It was decided by the staff of Liberty and some of the kids that I was obviously dressed up as Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and had a crowbar to go with the pace stick.

Also, this is some good rap.

CURSE YOU BLOCKBUSTER

2007-10-29T02:31:23Z

So, I have Blockbuster movies and I've had Terry Pratchett's Soul Music and Wyrd Sisters on my queue for so long that it isn't even funny and they were on LONG WAIT, so I knew it would take forever for me to get them. I was okay with that. I would get them though and that would be absolutely awesome.

Until Blockbuster removed them from their inventory. Today.

:''''''''''''''''(

I used to be a criminal

2007-10-27T13:56:36Z

So, last night, I was Point for the overnight shift. This basically means that I am the boss as concerns everything. I am responsible for making people stay in the morning if people don't show up. I am responsible to make people stay if my people don't show up. I am so powerful when I am point that I can make TEAM LEADERS (who are the highest supervisors who work the floor) stay if I so choose. I did that tonight.*

But that's not what the story is about. The story is about what happened at around four in the morning. At around four in the morning, two of my coworkers went to go do what we call Chemicals. Every night, this has to be done by us overnights unless the maintenance people steal our machinery, which they did last weekend. They go through the dorms and the school and take all the bottle of cleaning solution (Illustrious, TNT, and Triple Play) and make sure they're filled up. They have to take all the empty and partially empty bottles up to the third floor of the school building and fill them there.

Well, when they got up there, there was buggery afoot! No, no, I don't mean they were doing the nasty together,** but I do mean that they found something that was Not Quite Right. The third floor janitor's closet - where they go to fill the bottles - was unlocked, which is a serious security breach. Not only was it unlocked, but the trapdoor that leads to the attic was swinging open by the lock, the hinges having been removed.

So they called me, because I'm the boss. And I told them to look around in the attic. And I went upstairs and asked the guy who trained me in what I should do about it and they called again. It seems that more was up. There was another door that had also been unscrewed in the janitor's closet, but there was no one in the attic. I went to check things out, because I'm the boss.

I get up there and see that, verily, verily, they had told the truth and the door had had the hinges unscrewed. I was taking a look around and decided to check out the entire building, when this conversation took place:

Mr. Christian: "It had to be an inside job whoever unscrewed the hinges. They're on the bottom of the door."
The Boss (Me): "Not really, see here -" *I run my fingers along the top side of the door* "- you can unscrew them from the top side."
The New Guy, B-Ball: "How?"
The Boss (Me): "Oh, all you have to do is - I probably shouldn't be telling you how I know, but I used to be a criminal - take a drill bit 'cause the screws are sticking through and catch the screw on it and turn on your power drill and press. They'll spin right out and drop to the floor."
*two beats of nothing happening and neither of them cracking a smile*
The Boss (Me): "I didn't actually used to be a criminal - I'm just smart."
The New Guy, B-Ball: "Well ... you never know."

That's right, ladies and gentlemen, I LOOK LIKE A HARDENED CRIMINAL.

*But, because I am not a friggin' moron, I made sure I got someone to cover for him after an hour and a half.

** "Hey, hey, now, I know what that is. That's a gay joke." -Mr. Christian

falar @ 2007-10-13T20:48:00

2007-10-14T01:50:35Z

Hello, everyone!

This is Sha (aka Paula, serenadesha, etc) hijacking Falar's livejournal to let you all know that he is, indeed, alive.

That is all. Continue on your merry ways. :D

Quote From Work

2007-09-03T14:28:53Z

"Hovemeyer probably wrote his own vows. Dirty Harry Potter vows. 'I want to put my wand in your Chamber of Secrets.'"

In other news, I'm now in charge of a dorm at work. It's a bit strange.

EDIT: Also, this comic is pretty great.

:)

2007-08-11T21:45:02Z

I am loved. :)

Hey, look, it's me

2007-08-09T22:47:38Z

There's probably lots of just normal news that I could cover in this entry, but instead I'm just going to more or less say that I'm alive and doing well. I love Paula and she loves me and I don't have anything looming over me threatening to take my life away. So. That's really all that I need to be quite content with my life. If I have a flaw, it's the ability to be content with little.

HAY LOOK, in two months I have earned $1.81 dollars on my savings account! Yay for money that accrues without me needing to do a thing.

In other news, I archived all my old LJ entries, which is probably part of why I'm actually making an entry. I used to make entries all the time. Of course, I also used to do a whole lot more memes and quizzes. So, I will take this opportunity to pimp hat_sorting. Go there, read the FAQs and do the questionnaire and they'll sort you into a house from Hogwarts! Be forewarned that the questionnaire is quite long and detailed and the process takes a bit, but it's good value for your time. If you really want to be sorted into a house.

In looking back over my old entries, I read a lot of stuff about the good old Vulpine Imperium. As I read them, I realize more and more how that community (and, indeed, many other of the same type of communities) could have benefited from the GM paradigm. Not to mention how it would have probably worked better if the Ministers and whatnot were NPCs and mods/whatever just had normal-er characters. Well, at least for RPers like me. I never could really RP with the common masses if I was the Mayor or the MinoNice. It just wouldn't have worked.

However, I sincerely doubt many other Ministers would want to give up their positions and powers to be GM types, who only control the entire world and have no real face in the game.

Stuff

2007-07-11T13:49:06Z

I haven't really updated here in a while. Not a lot of note has happened. That I can think of. I suppose I can talk about a few things though. Oooh! I can put them in cool little topic headings so you can see what you're reading about! I'll even LJ-cut them for those of you who don't want to see what I'm talking about without a warning.

Dude. Paula and I just saw Transformers last night and I simply must tell you ... it was made of rock. So much rock that the Rock himself doesn't have that much rock in him. And his name is the Rock. I mean seriously, if something rocks harder than the Rock (even when he's rock-hard), it's gotta be pretty rockin' awesome, right?

Anyways. I love Shia Labeouf. And he played the main character, so that was pretty much awesome. Also returning from the last really great movie I saw the both of them in was Jon Voigt. Both of them did an excellent job, as did many other actors in the film. They had great character design for their supporting characters. They didn't feel all cut out of cardboard. They looked, acted, and moved like their characters had more to them than just a couple lines. Which was pretty awesome for all the bit parts that were in there.

Movies that I've recently seen for the first time other than Transformers:

Catch Me If You Can

The Boondock Saints

Bulletproof Monk

I also received some books I had left behind at home when I visited there. Thud!, Monstrous Regiment and Jennifer Government. I spent the entire afternoon after I received them just reading Jennifer Government That book is just too good. It is made of equal parts awesome and win. But I tend to enjoy Max Barry's works almost all the time. Even though most of them are more or less along the same lines of "Unchecked Business is Bad Mojo." Which I tend to agree with. While at the same time thinking that smaller government is good.

Man. I am so middle of the road on some issues.

I'm going to read Monstrous Regiment again next. Mostly because I haven't read it in ages. At least when compared with most other Pratchett's. I think I've read it less times than Color of Magic, which is really saying something. I am so not a fan of Rincewind that it almost hurts. I'm practically an anti-fan. Yep, if he were around I'd go to where I could get an autograph and pointedly not get one. Just because I'm that much of an anti-fan.

For those of you that don't know, Fate-renity is my attempt (currently in progress) to put together a Firefly/Serenity system that's based on Evil Hat's Fate 3.0. Include with that elements of the licensed Serenity RPG, like the economy, the ship information and all the shiny, shiny background and slang information. And you've got Fate-renity.

Stuff is coming along apace and when I slap together some chapters into the actual final format for the Alpha version, it will be at a spot that will have enough information that is different that I can start a game. Well, a game that is the type that I want to run. Which doesn't start in the air or with a lot of equipment or stuff like that. It starts on the ground with four to six characters, who eventually work up to having their own skiff or hovermule, then to a short-range shuttle good for planet-to-its-moons travel and then FINALLY to having their own ship.

So, as you can see, I don't need the ship mechanics there yet. Unfortunately, this means the pilot and mechanic must be either multitalented, or I get to be multitalented in deciding what kind of jobs they're going to pull that they need those skills. Most likely the latter, seeing as the GM should be the one who does those things. Although Fate-renity is going to be built for multitalented characters anyways. That's just the nature of the pyramid.

I'd have to have more background information made up and in place though. Pick a planet with a few terraformed moons on it and carve it out as the initial setting. I wonder if I can get a few people to do a Lexicon RP with me to start it out. Or maybe I can do a Lexicon RP all by my lonesome for it. Just something to knock the planet and moons together that it's going to start on.

Work continues. I continue to make money at it. Some of my coworkers really need a good firing, but such happens wherever you work. I actually quite enjoy the work, even though it's something that wouldn't have presented itself to me right off.

Make fun of this! It was my application to an RP that I never really got into. Which was a high-stake chess thing. No, I don't really understand that.

Character's Name: Reginald Walsh

Character's Codename: Farmer

Rank: Pawn, but of course.

Symbol: Empty Corn Cob (No corn on it, actually, just the middle bit.)

PB: Alan Tudyk

Height: 6'

Weight: 160 pounds

Age: Early 40's

Eye color: Brown

Hair color: Sandy, that midway color between blonde and brown that looks good uncombed.

Weapon of choice: Double-barreled twelve gauge shotgun with an array of different shells.

Personal Info: Reginald isn't much of a fighter. He isn't much of a talker either. In fact, he isn't much of anything that you would find in the Black army. Given the chance, he's going to find every opportunity to get an unfair advantage over his opponent that he can. This is not because he's a manipulative blaggard, it's more because he knows he has no way to win without an unfair advantage. He tends toward straightforward speaking, although he knows that duplicity exists and can be used for advantages.

Background History:
Quite simply, Reginald was a farmer. Not farming marijuana or anything special like that, just corn. The fact that he's appearing in the game appears a mystery at first glance. Then you get to know more about what happened in the life of Mister Walsh and things start coming together.

His parents were Amanda and Corey Walsh, also farmers. They, however, didn't have his vision and had stayed on a single farm. When Reginald inherited full control of the farm after they retired, things started to change.

Nearby farms soon came under his control, through fair means or foul. He aimed to have an empire within a year. He'd have a monopoly on the corn market in the area come hell, high water, lawyers or men with really large guns. Because he would get a hotter hell, higher water, better lawyers or men with cannons. He had drive.

Then it all came tumbling down. Federal Marshals investigated his business dealings and found the flaws. Within a week, he had nothing.

Nothing, that is, but a double-barreled shotgun, an arsenal of different shell types and a letter from a man who identified himself as the Joker.

Please include a small writing sample using the character you are applying with, this is the most important part of the application as it lets us see your mastery of roleplaying and whether or not this character fits into this RPG:
"No, no, mister Walsh," the small, bandy legged farmer said, cowering in a corner of the dimly lit shed. "That isn't what I meant at all."

"If it isn't what you meant, how come it's what happened, Sammy?" Reginald asked, calmly covering the man with his shotgun. This was the third farmer this week that had responded badly to his buyout techniques. It was also the third farmer who he'd had in front of his shotgun this week. Only time would tell if it would be the third farmer with a cross above his grave this week.

"One of my boys must've misunderstood," Sammy replied, his hand shaking madly. He had heard about the other two farmers. He had been at their funerals.

"So, I take it you are selling me your farm?"

"Y-yes, mister Walsh, I am."

The shotgun wielder passed him a document and a pen. "Sign where it says 'Seller's name here', alright?"

Sammy hastily botched out a messy signature and handed it back.

"Now, get off my property."

"But, but, you haven't paid me yet ..."

"This document says I paid you by not taking your life. Read the small print next time."

A curse slipped from Sammy's lips as he scurried from the building. Reginald smiled. It had been a good day.

What the what up.

2007-06-30T13:17:20Z

Thud!, by Terry Pratchett, is an awesome book. I totally forgot how awesome it was since the last time I read it. It really makes me want to get or make a Thud board and set and play with someone. Not that I know anyone to actually play with. And it's probably not even that great of a game, but the book is that good.

Firefly is also a pretty darn great. I haven't watched it in a long time either. Just due to not having watched it in a while. Now that I watch it with the GM part of my mind working, it's almost better. Just seeing all the places where I can say "Oooh, I can use that."

Speaking of which, Fate-renity. I'm attempting to kludge together a ruleset for Serenity based on Fate 3.0 by Evil Hat and the licensed Serenity RPG by Jamie Chambers. It'll probably take a while, seeing as some large chunks of Fate 3.0 have to be mined from Spirit of the Century and lots of details need to be hammered out (skills, stunts, flying), but when it's together, I'll likely be running a game of it.

Slowly but surely catching up on my webcomics list, which I've attacked in a truly random manner, taking comics from the top to the bottom. Some of these comics I don't even remember. Like ... Striptease. Which isn't what it sounds like and I've caught up on. Erfworld is also kinda fun.

Oh! I cleaned out my friends list. Mostly I got rid of communities and people who don't post anymore and people I already had filtered out. And I added some dude who added me who I'd never heard of. Stormy Wulf something or other. You know who you are. Let me know who you are.

I am ze burglar in the night

2007-06-23T00:37:37Z

Okay, so more like the late afternoon or early evening. But that's getting ahead of the story (which isn't that long in the first place and really shouldn't be jumped ahead of on), so let's go into the way back (not that way back) machine to the beginning of ... what's happened.

Paula came over to my apartment to hang out. It was pretty awesome, but we had a small problem! Both of us were hungry! So, using a cunning plan involving the internet, a cell phone and a shoddy bomb casing full of used pinball machine parts, we ordered pizza for pick up at the Hut. After a few minutes waiting, we went to get it.

And get it we did. After resisting the temptation to steal a small scooter (it was a small temptation and thus easy to resist), we picked it up and TALLY HO to home. But then we got to the front door and a singular situation presented itself. The door was locked and both keys were inside. What to do?!

I called the landlord. He said he'd track down a key and come over. And then ... my unused but previously finely honed burglary senses came to the fore. Using brute force and a minor application of intelligence, I lifted a pane of glass out of the door, reached inside and unlocked the door. We were in! Now to steal the Royal Arcadian Diamond and dodge its curse!

Oh, wait, it was only my apartment.

Work

2007-06-15T13:44:36Z

So, this morning, there were three open shifts. Which meant three people had to stay for full shifts. Two were already lined up to and one volunteered. Yay for that. It'd mean I'd get out of there on time and to bed on time, right?

Riiiiiiiight.

I ended up staying an hour and a half helping out ... more or less all over the place ... 'cause Unity was running like crap and Liberty had a situation and ... stuff. I get overtime for it, yes, it's just a bit ... annoying.

On the plus side, I did get to yell like an unreasonable person at 20-odd kids.

falar @ 2007-06-14T07:11:00

2007-06-14T12:12:40Z

You know it's going to be a bad day at work when they call and tell you to bring your swords.