Posts by Lace Sabatons

Like I said, I wasn't really able to get drawn into it either. Although I do recall reading a fairly epic 60+ part fanfic about it that was really engaging.

What don't you like about it?

I play a ton of Cards Against Humanity, mostly because my little sister loves it. One day we got bored of playing it, and we decided to play charades using the white cards instead. We'd draw a white card, and then stand up and try to act out the card until someone was able to guess which card we got. That was, without a doubt, the most fun I ever had with CAH.

I'm actually working on a card game based on that experience.

I enjoy chess, but I'm terrible at it. And I don't remember the last time I played checkers.

I've never even heard of Loteria. Would you recommend it?

Brand Loyalty is just such a silly concept in the first place. Why should anyone ever be loyal to a brand? I can see why a person might be loyal to a specific McDonalds employee. Perhaps that employee treated them very well. The customer might want to see that person rewarded for their kindness and good work. I can see why a person might be loyal to a specific McDonalds. Maybe they're friends with the franchise owner, and they want his business to be successful. I can even see why a person might be loyal to a specific McDonalds food. If you really like Big Macs, then you're not going to want to eat them.

But why would a person ever be loyal to a brand? What about the curvy yellow "M" can possibly earn a person's loyalty? It's a fluid collection of people who may care more or less about your satisfaction. The only reason you might feel any love for a company as a whole is because of marketing. That thing where people are paid a ton of money so they can trick you into spending money by making you feel good about a company and/or product. "Brand Loyalty" is a fancy term that means "Rich people tricking poor people into acting against their own interests."

Quote from Kaynil

Hahah. The Linker always coming back. If I recall correctly he was harmless but quite dumb in his ban evade. Making it clear with his new usernames who he was. Quite amusing. I don't even remember why he was supended originally but I think it was not taht big of a deal and he just made things worse by creating new accounts to ban evade. hahahah.

Yeah, I think he was originally given a short ban for spamming or something stupid. Just a slap on the wrist to make him realize he had to shape up or ship out. But then came Linker2, Linker3, The Linker, etc. etc. etc.

Quote

I don't think taht. What makes you say that?

I guess that comment probably did count as fishing for compliments, didn't it? I swear that's not what I meant. I really do think I was a terrible person back then, but I've made my peace with it. I'm pretty happy with who I am now. And, for me, becoming a person that I can respect required that I realize the things that I didn't like about myself.

Of course, part of it was just that I was a teenager. I had more pride than sense, and I was arrogant without the experience, skills, or knowledge that would have earned me a bit of arrogance. I got in stupid arguments, made a big deal about stupid things that didn't matter, and engaged with every petty drama that passed through the login screen of TSR. But that's just being a teenager, and I grew out of it.

The really bad part is that I was a product of a nutjob catholic fundamentalist environment. I got in arguments about whether or not god could be logically proven to exist. I was strongly pro-War, and pro-Bush. I was vocally anti-choice, and probably made more than my fair share of comments that in retrospect would disturbingly sexist or racist. I did a lot of sexual moralizing about how everyone should wait for marriage and blah blah blah. I barely knew Quistis, and I took the time to send her stupidly judgmental messages. And I was a huge fucking homophobe. One particularly shameful memory is when I listed my occupation as "homicide," because I was a was such a brooding, edgy teenager.

But I was also poorly educated, so I misspelled the word as "Homocide." Sammi pointed out the misspelling, and noted that the way it was spelled looked like it was my occupation to kill gay people. My response was to say "Yeah, sounds right to me!" And I left it unchanged for months.

I am ashamed of who I was back then, and I don't feel bad about that shame. If not for TSR, I never would have grown. I lived my whole life in the bubble my parents created for me. TSR was the first time in my life that anybody told me I was wrong about the hateful things I believed. The community began the process of my own self betterment, and within 3 years of joining I had completely left all of that behind me and was working to make amends for my failings.

One thing I can be somewhat proud of is that I don't think I was ever anything but supportive of Ashleigh when she expressed how she didn't feel like she belonged in her gender. I don't think I'd ever even really heard of transgendered people before I met Ashleigh. I hadn't been raised to hate them the way I'd been raised to hate other groups, so my first instinct was to try and be understanding towards her. So I wasn't a complete monster. =P

I mean, I imagine if I'd been too aggressive about my bullshit I would've just been banned outright. So I suppose at least I was kinda subtle about it? =P

True. You never notice the small differences day-to-day, and when you finally realize those small differences have added up into a large change, you may have already ignored them for too long. But really, I think parents ought to be held to a much higher standard than they are with these things. There's a reason my parents have only ever known about 3 of my romantic relationships.

My own relationship with my parents has been distant for years now. But, like Libby Anne, the fact that I love my siblings kept the lines of communication open. And after so long on my own, my parents and I have started to develop something like an amicable relationship. Not a close one, but an amicable one.

Interesting. We don't do anything like that in the U.S., which is a shame. We're such a large / diverse country, it'd be neat to have a public holiday celebrating local culture. Unfortunately we're also work-obsessed.

What does a nerd party at Kaynil's look like?

I really prefer the Links of LttP and LoZ to any others. But, the first one that comes to my mind is probably adult OoT Link.

I'm really bad at fighting games. Really really really really bad. But if I had to pick a "real" fighting game to play, it'd probably be Soul Calibur 2.

Raphael is cheap. But I kinda like playing him, because I actually spent ~10 years as a sabre fencer. So I personally have some familiarity with his moveset. I also like playing him because he's cheap and it's the only way I can ever win anything.

SC2 is also the first time I ever saw a character using Tonfa, which are a pretty neat weapon.

The oft-cited reasoning is that they made link Blonde to make him attractive, and thus draw in lady gamers. Although I suspect that this is a case of putting the cart before the horse. I don't think Nintendo intentionally targeted the female libido. But, having known many many (many) women whose first crush was adult Link in OoT, I can see why a lot of folks assume the brown>blonde switch was targeted at the straight ladies.

Since my girlfriend is gone for a few days I should clean the house.

It's also been way too long since I've done any writing. These past few weeks have been tumultuous, and I'm not getting as much work done as I ought to.

Mario RPG would have been nice. I've attempted it a few times as an adult and find it a little simplistic and boring, which is kind of a bummer. I'm glad I played so many of the Final Fantasy games when I was younger, because I don't think I could sit through them the first time as an adult.

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^Is sadly correct. I really don't play that many vidja anymore.
< Is living alone for the next 3 days.
V Has a brother, but no sisters?

Wednesday is a public holiday in Aussieland? Why?

I'm sure it won't be the only CAH game we plan. If you can't attend, there's always the next one. =D

Bots are the worst. Some of my old forums used to get bombarded with porn. Just threads with 20 posts, and each post had 50 porn thumbnails or something.

Fortunately, that's not hard to really define. Bots and advertisements are bad and can be nuked without serious consideration. It's the spammy posts of legitimate members that we have to treat with a lighter touch.

Was in one of my rare Metal moods this morning.

Truth. I'd rather work out in front of strangers than do it in front of my girlfriend.

You're right, I'd forgotten that you and I had joined at pretty much the same time.

Gannondorf Moose is the guy who said "And this I quote." I don't know why I remember that, but I do. Looking back, there's a good chance he was trolling us. He just refused to use the proper quote function, not matter how many times it was explained. I seem to recall he was pretty over-the-top superior as well. He would refer to people who disagreed with him with such utter contempt and dismissal. Nobody liked that guy.

There was also a member called Linker I think, who kept getting banned, but kept making new accounts. At some point he prompted me to make this:

And help me out here. Dark the 7th had two buddies on the forum. Both women. One was Sammi, and the other was...? I can't recall for the life of me. The only thing I remember is that she was bisexual, talked about being distracted by her own body, and said that she wore diapers when she was on her period. It's bugging the hell outta me that I can't remember her name.

Oh, and remember that Aerith cosplayer? I think she just went by Aeris on the boards or something. She ended up getting really famous I think. Has been on TV a few times, well known as a cosplayer, stuff like that.

There was Quistis, the woman from Essex, one of the few people who really migrated to TSR from FFR. I'm afraid I don't remember much about her, except that I made an ass of myself by moralizing about sex to her once.

Also, Darkmoon! (BUTTMON) She was from Phoenix AZ, and she and I actually talked a lot. I've always been kinda sad that she dropped off the grid entirely.

You know, as fond as my memories of the TSR gang are, I was a terrible person back then.

B'daw, I appreciate that. It's true I'm in a bad situation right now, but I've been in much much much worse situations in my life, and I've got a pretty good safety net set up for myself if shit hits the fan.

I need to find a job, no doubt about it. But I've spent enough time in the grownup business world that when I actually do get a job, I know exactly what it takes to kick ass at it. I might be grumpy for a little while as I live a life without booze or pizza, but in the end I'll land on my feet.