I really let this page sit with like nothing for a decade, huh? Guess I'm gonna start using it as I should have been from the start.

As part of that, I'm looking for someone to do a ref sheet if anyone who reads this has any reccs. Still not particularly picky about this after all this time, I'd just like to get a base so that maybe I can get comms in the future or maybe actually just have an idea of myself in my head so I can wrap my brain around practicing art again.

Otherwise actually gonna start faving things from artists, since I, for some reason, haven't been? Like literally actively avoiding half the point of having an account.

Anyway, I'm also gonna work on cleaning up the profile, maybe provide links to me, though I still have basically nothing to show off. Just feel like getting thoughts of what I should do out there in the world will motivate me a bit.

Between looking for a job (Thank you, ADN classifieds for having nothing but 2 yr+ minimum requirements or travel that I can't meet.) and speeding up my game considerably on KoL, I've really not done much. Joy.


Otherwise.... Kung-Fu Panda 2 was pretty cool. Cutting down my rambling, I love their design of Shen, the peacock. I admire the fluidity they gave him and, well. *lovey sigh* I wish I liked villains less.

Guh.
-Grey

Fuuun times. Infections up the wazoo, but a Dr.s appointment tomorrow, so hopefully things there will be cleared up. Lost a friend, but he did it to himself by saying "I'm too lazy to actually make plans and see people, and to keep seeing me you'll have to deal with it." So my small group dropped him like a bad habit, as he had ditched us for 4-5 weeks in a row prior to this. Still jobless, unlucky, and due to sickness I haven't wanted to hit up the temp agency.

Also, looking for a good game to distract myself with in the 40 dollar or less range. Note, as a generality, I want about 6-7 hours per 10 bucks. Cannot be Patapon 3, because I haven't finished it yet, and I burned myself out by over grinding. Woo.

KYYYYYYYYSH!!!! (He knows what this is for.)


Anything else...? Oh, yeah, losing that friend actually makes it so that I have no reason to play children's card games. Bleh.

Pre-emptive Happy Easter to anyone who actually reads this.

~Grey
P.S. IT STILL FEELS LIKE I WRITE LETTERS.

Bored, tired, can't sleep, decided to do meem-ish thing instead.

BUG

Favorite: ALL OF THEM. I can't do that? Shit. I guess... I don't want to double up, and 2 bugs are definately my favorites for other types... so... Heracross.

Least Favorite: Beautifly. I'll give Dustox a pass, but Beautifly is just Butterfree 2.0. Also in the least favorite is Forretress, because I rarely remember him anyway.

DARK
Favorite: Another one where I have to choose? Shiiiiiit... Cacturne, useless stat-wise, but he's a cactus, and a samurai, and why not?

Least Favorite: There is only one dark pokemon I honestly can say I dislike. Houndoom. He just feels uninspired, even compared to the early 'oh, it's a colorful <animal>' pokemon.

DRAGON

Favorite: Flygon. Damn straight, I mean Flygon.

Least Favorite: ... All the rest? I can't do that? Ffffffffff... Salamence is bland, but... I guess I don't like Garchomp really. I just felt he doesn't look dragon-y (shut up, I know flygon looks like a bug. Shhh.)

ELECTRIC

Favorite: JOLTIK GALVANTULA JOLTIK GALVANTULA JOLTIK GALVANTULA. Can you tell my favorite line?

Least Favorite: Pikachu. I have never liked it, and I never will. The only thing I ever liked pikachu for was getting a surfing/flying raichu.

FIGHT

Favorite: Scraggy/Scrafty because heck yes mohawk lizard.

Least Favorite: I can't choose just one here. Tyrogue and the Hitmons, because Lee and Chan were cool, then they needed a baby form and Top to fill an awkward space that no one cared about. And Lucario. Because seriously. SERIOUSLY.

FIRE

Favorite: Ninetails! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA No. (Sorry Kysh.) Volcarona. Fire moth? Heck yes!

Least Favorite: Can I say Houndoom again? No? Shit. Um. Charizard or Arcanine. Charizard because it should be a dragon. If it were Fire/Dragon it'd be fine. Yes, that WOULD make it ridiculously overpowered for a starter. No, I don't care. Arcanine because, really. It's just a dog. Yes. It looks cool, fine, but it doesn't need to be THAT hyped. No, I don't dislike dogs, I just find the designs bland and improvable. (Yes, I dislike Flareon too. Shh.)

FLYING

Favorite: Ohgod, flying. SO MANY CHOICES. ... I am such an ass for this. Hoppip/Skiploom/Jumpluff. No, I am not kidding.

Least Favorite: This one I can't just do one or names. EVERY. SINGLE. ROUTE 1/2/3/4 STARTING. FLYER. I have not liked any of them, and still I sit there with one on my team at the end of the game as an HM slave.

GHOST

Favorite: Oh crap. Another one I like a lot of... uh... um... Gengar. I'll go with the classic here.

Least Favorite: Jellicent is kinda ugly, but I dislike the Dusknoir line.

GRASS

Favorite: Trying hard not to do duplicates, so... the Oddish Line, because I have fond memories of petal dance death.

Least Favorite: Um. Tangrowth. I'll just leave it at that.

GROUND

Favorite: Krookodile. Sunglasses Alligator, Ahoy!

Least Favorite: Stunfisk. Because herpa derp.

ICE

Favorite: Sneasel/Weavile. Because my dark love bleeds into everything else.

Least Favorite: Vanilluxe. Seriously, looking at every ice pokemon, I still, STILL find the most reason to hate the ice cream cone over everything else. Even the Crying Snowflake is cooler. PUN!

NORMAL

Favorite: I don't like much in the world of Normal. Smeargle, I guess, for the fact that if it can live through it, it can have ANY move set ever.

Least Favorite: The rest. Nah, continuing on my dog-pokemon-dislike-capades Granbull or Terrier.

POISON

Favorite: Nidoking. NIDO. KING.

Least Favorite: I wish I could be more fair. Tentacool. Because treading through HUNDREDS of them to get to victory road makes TJ something something.

PSYCHIC:

Favorite: So many options... I guess I'll let one dog/cat thing have its day. Espeon wins my love.

Least Favorite: Jynx. Just... Jynx.

ROCK

Favorite: Crustle. :3

Least Favorite: Bastodon. Ohgodmyeyes.

STEEL

Favorite: Metagross.

Least Favorite: Lucari... er... Probopass

WATER

Favorite: Ludicolo! Ahahah. Sorry. He's awesome, but Omastar.

Least Favorite: I don't have a soft spot for a lot of water pokemon... Tenatcool would fit here... Instead, I'll upset people. Gyrados. Yeah, that's right.

STARTER

Favorite: Torterra!

Least Favorite: Oshawott.

LEGENDARY

Favorite: NONE. Er. Genesect. You'll find out why when he gets an official release.

Least Favorite: The rest. I don't like legendaries, really.The Regis, I guess, followed by Mew, for personal hate (we never got the event announced up here, but it was up here for all of 1 day.)

Pre-emptive warning. This will be a huge nerd journal, by which I mean my request is something hilariously pitiful. Oh well, I need help.

After years of hiatus of doing a lot of things, I decided to un-hiatus one of them. Which one?

Building Decks in Children's Card Games.

I'm making a deck in Yu-Gi-Oh, technically two, but only one of them is mine. The deck I'm making for myself is a Dinosaur deck, using the 'tribe' theme of Jurracs.

Now that the backstory is there, here's the request: I need punny dinosaur joke names/titles/whatever for the name of the deck. The two I have come up with are "Open the door. Get on the Floor." (Everybody walk the Dinosaur) and "Jurrac-sic Park".

As you can see, I -need- the help.

Thank you in advance for your help.
-Grey

PS: I think I know why I outro it with a 'signature' I'm certain I just feel like I'm writing a letter.

I know no one reads journals, oh well, the other person who lives near me and has the same birthday did it, so... *bandwagon*

Friday: Took  Kyshatra to dinner, had sweet, delicious, succulent tempura sweet potatoes. Oh god yes. Also Chocolates. Including one which had the internal mixture of honey, vinegar, and floor cleaner. *thumbs up* Also inherited Kysh's PS3 games, because his is borked and mine needed stuff.

Also got into the Darkspore Beta for the weekend. It was alright. Needs some work on some things. A lot of some things.

Saturday: Lazed around, got Marvel Versus Capcom 3 on the new PS3 that I got from tax money. Had friends take me to a wonderful place, by which I mean my best female friend had me over, cooked dinner with us, we learned savory fruit salsa is a terrible, TERRIBLE thing. We learned that souffle falling makes it more like a slightly fluffier quiche, with all the extra liquid gushing out. We learned that another 'friend' "Firecrotch"/Doug is the biggest wimp ever and only eats well done meat. I also proceeded to beat him in his favorite card game with his own badly constructed sub-decks. We had delicious Mac and Cheese and coconut cheesecake with Passion Fruit glaze. We ended the night with Mario Party, and everyone hating each other, along with the revelation that around friends my tact is non-existant. ("Doug is such a whore, yes a real huge whore.")

Sunday: Didn't get to bed until almost 7 am hangover! Finished the available campaign in the Darkspore beta, lazed around, played more MVC3... Yeah, Sunday was boring.


It was a blast, and I even got a way to call a great friend a hipster for all eternity.

The real topper to all of this? I STILL have stuff coming to me in the mail, including a signed copy of the Final Fantasy Distant Worlds (I think is the name) CD, the stuff to make a DS Flash Card, and a preorder on Pokemon Black which I believe they're doing a midnight release for.

The best part: This isn't even a milestone birthday.

Mwahaha
-Grey?

... Welp. There's only going to be one game here, for one reason: What free time I have had, it has absorbed. COMPLETELY.

Recettear is an item shop simulator. Seriously. That's what it is. And it is addictive. It's cutey anime like graphics, more a generic type than a hugely obvious "this is the artist' type thing. Don't let that fool you though. You can hire adventurer's to go through dungeons to take items to sell, you can visit the town, and you do all of this because your dad is a deadbeat and skipped out on a million currency loan.

That may not sound like much, but dear god. The premise is deceptively simple. It is simply one of the most wonderful games I have ever played. 10/10. Seriously. Get on steam and download the demo, or buy the game. Do it. DO IT.

Welp, all of the non-plot spoilers exist on the internets now. And...

I thank them, for making more dark types. They may have EVERY WEAKNESS EVER but at least now I'll have more options for my favorite failboat. Including a Dark/Steel and Dark/Dragon.

On the other hand, approximately 1/10 of the new pokemon are legends. In other words, of the approximately... 150, I think, new pokemon, 15 of them are legends. I.E. 1/10th of them are either things people will catch and abuse to make the game easy, or are things people will catch and ignore for the rest of their play time.

A lot of the designs are... well, lacking a better verb after being up for 24 hours, a lot of the designs are derpy. Some of them completely lack cohesion (The water starter's 3rd form for example. That just came out of left field to me.) Some of them go from looking horrible to looking semi-decent for once. (The grass starter, actually. I'm repulsed by the first from, but the third form is actually kinda cool to me.)

Minor spoiler alert. I'm almost certain 3/4s of the legends are fighting type, so know you know the theme.

And as a final note, anyone who decides to fight me after B+W come out... well, expect to have the easiest time ever. TEAM OHGOD THEY GAVE ME DARK SUBOPTIONS will... well probably lose to everyone, since dark has SO MANY WEAKNESSES.

If anyone hasn't seen the sprite sheet yet, just leave a comment, or catch me on a messenger and I'll link ya to it. Or you could google, and not be lazy. Jerks.

-Grey.

Spare time, nothing to do, last journal is still in effect, still would like advice on new colors, only have one suggestion. Blah blah.


Dragon Quest IX is a 'generic jRPG with a job system'. DQ games from the past have been known to be extremely grindy, and for the most part, this continues. The grind needed to complete the storyline is considerably tiny compared to the grind at the start of disc 3 of Final Fantasy XIII, for example. Or itsy bitsy when compared to an MMO. Within a week I have made it to the final dungeon, my highest character upon entering to unlock the last class available before post-game was level 32.

The job system presented is unique in that each job has x skill types available to them (I believe 6, I'll edit it in when I have the opportunity, or when it's not 3 am), one of which is always job specific, the other skills are weapon options or the class specific set. The uniqueness is that the class specifics will always have stat boosts, and unlike most job systems, the abilities from the class skill stay with you for all future class changes. That means once you learn how to steal as a thief, you can permanently steal as any job.

The other side to this is that you don't keep spells. Your available spells are all based on the class you currently are. So if you're a priest, you only get healing spells, it you're a martial artist or a warrior, you don't get ANY spells, and you get pitiful MP for abilities.

All in all, having played for approximately 60 hours thus far, 20 of which are me making sure I feel comfortable for endgame, and it being a jRPG, it's a very good game. The only thing that I could try to slight it on is the fact that the art is styled by Akira Toriyama, the artist behind Dragonball/Z. While it's something you can overlook, I am aware his art can cause very volatile reactions in people.

For those looking for a numerical review, we'll call it an 8/10. It's great, especially since the most recent comparable is the Final Fantasy 4 remake on the DS. It however falls in compare to a couple of my favorite RPGS (FFVI, FFIX, CT, etc.).



Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World There's... not a lot I can say that hasn't already been said. Even without knowing the actual goings on I imagine it would still be a fun side-scrolling beat-em-up. "It's a spiritual successor to River City Ransom" as has been said in at least one review.

It's fun enough for me to warrant playing through to unlock everything on every character and finish every difficulty. And since that's 5 characters, and each one would have a minimum grind of $500, that should say something. 9/10, for making me love it even as it crushes my balls under a safe with it's difficulty sometimes. It'd be a 10 if I could get over the fact that 3 bosses have killed themselves by bouncing me into them.



Again: last journal is still in effect, still would like advice on new colors, only have one suggestion. Blah blah.

-Grey

tl;dr: Need help choosing a new color scheme for Grey.


There's a bit of backstory here. For a long time, anyone I've been acquaintances with has pulled the "you just don't like that because it's popular" card. It's been that way since about 4th grade. Well, since 4th grade, I've just had a distaste for anything you see all the time. It's not special to my eyes, it's not worth paying attention to. Like Napoleon Dynamite. I'll never know if it was a good movie, because I'm still surrounded with people who quote the hell out of it and make my eyes roll.

Well, This applies to just about anything. I don't like most of the middle range of blues because the sky contains them throughout the day, and everyone though high-school and now have worn them and had them as their favorite color for accessories, notebooks, what have you.

Well, It took awhile, because Green is my favorite color, but I finally hit a point where I got sick of seeing it everywhere. It's something that I had avoided for so long, but then having someone who had an unnatural green character kinda infringe on my thoughts about being something that shouldn't look like it has x type of power, with the same one, it hit me. (No, I'm not claiming they saw me went "OHhhh, good idea" and took it, I know it's full on coincidence.) I need to change Grey's colors to keep my sanity now.

It's not like other things where I'm completely sick of it. I'm fine with various greens as sub-colors (like  seely) or for something that should have it as a natural color for a main color (reptiles, etc.), hell, I think I'd even be fine with deeper (close to black) shades as creatures that shouldn't be green. It's all of these main color lime/mint/neon/really light or bright and obviously unnatural green mammalian (I haven't seen this issue pop-up in other animal realms. >.>; ) characters that pop up make me no longer appreciate it.

So, I'm sending out a request: After the explanation, I'll put a list of colors I'm fine with, and I'd like anyone who reads this to throw out suggestions for Main Color, Hair Color, and Sub Color. One color will remain static, and that's the yellow/gold eyes. As I'm a reptile, so most colors are natural, and if I were to push it to 'dragon' I could literally use any colors, hence the list. Reference for current colors here.

Acceptable Colors:
Darker/Subdued Reds
Subdued Oranges (Preferably darker)
Really Dark Blues (Midnight, Navy)
Really Light Blues (Baby, Ice)
All Purples
Natural Dark Earthy Browns
Sandy Browns
Shades of Gray
Most Natural 'Metal' colors (Copper, for example)
Black and White (Markings/sub-color only)

For anyone who actually reads this in full (Thanks Zac) thank you for reading.

Anyone who responds, regardless of reading, thank you for your suggestions!
-Grey

WE ARE SEX BOB-OMB AND WE'RE HERE TO WATCH SCOTT KICK YOUR TEETH IN!!!!!!


(I'm sure Zac will come and correct the quote for me in a comment.)

As a side note. Loved the movie, getting all 6 volumes of the graphic novel within a week, can't wait for the game to be released on the XBLA,

If college weren't starting up again on monday, I'd probably spend the week watching it over and over with my own money, even though our theatre kinda sucks and the music becomes unbearable as it was already loud on top of speakers that are full blast.



EGITL Welp, that avatar was short lived. Took 24 hours to make sure it wasn't used before I did, checked again 2 hours after I did the switch, and now I've seen 2 or 3, back to zombie.

tl;dr: Has anyone else stopped playing games because they never clicked? And if they have clicked, what made them do so?



Today, something happened that made me realize something. Reasons why I've had video games that fit right up my alley fall out of my favor. Reasons that even though I'm obviously having a fun time, I quit playing a game entirely because of them.

Am I the only person who has to have a class click on them to have fun? I mean, I'll use Ragnarok Online as an example. Low levels, I love Acolytes and priests. They're fun, relatively fast. Same with Thief into Rogue. They don't draw me to the game, but every time I start up, I make them because convention says that you need a thief class or a monk for easy farming. I can accept that.

In all the times I've played RO, nothing made it click to me. Rogues, Monks, Assassins, Priests all got boring. If a Battle Sage/Scholar had been more viable, that would have won me over right there. Nothing like walking up to Baphomet and slapping him in the face with a bible, right? In the end, a class that I hate playing is the class that won me over and kept me playing. A Merchant.

Merchants have little power unless you have another character to feed them. No one in my group of friends at the time liked playing them. Usually I just stepped up to play it because it was relatively easy for me to suffer the pain, because after I hit Blacksmith they'd do what they needed to to get what they wanted on him. Well, the most recent time I played, I actually advanced to a Merchant High, and then to a Whitesmith. After years, and years, of hating the merchant class set, I suddenly had something in my mind click. I was suddenly having ridiculous amounts of fun as a class that I never wanted to see in my character list.


Now, extending the example, in WoW: None of the WoW classes make me click. I can play most of them in at least one way fairly well, Resto/Balance Druid, Prot Pally, etc. None of them are actually fun to me, for me to stay on WoW there has to be a group of people having fun, non-constant drama, things that make you stay with a group of friends in real life. That is the only thing that kept me playing WoW on and off for 5 years. Now, most of that is gone. I have people from WoW I'd like to keep in touch with, but outside of that, there's really no draw to me anymore; I have no need to make my e-peen/numbers bigger.


Which brings me to why I'm writing this.Yesterday, on League of Legends, they released a new Champion, Galio, a tank-type gargoyle champion. His abilities are able to slow opponents, shield allies to heal himself, make allies run faster, and taunt everyone around him for 3 seconds. Looking at my track record, this should not be a champion I enjoy, but I do.He clicked when I first played him, and within three games, my body had started to have reflexes with him that the other people I'd seen play him hadn't had at all.

Info dump: League of Legends is an RTS game similar to the mod in Warcraft 3 called Defense of the Ancients (DotA). I hated DotA, because: a) It took the one thing I absolutely hated about WC3, and turned it into its own game and b) to be good, to actually stand a chance at it, I had to spend countless hours at a time playing it to learn a single champion, just to find out by the time I got good at playing him, that now everyone I would be playing with was into random draft and my practice was useless.

 WhiteStriker started playing with me on League of Legends shortly after I posted my journal here that I was, he had played previously and had been a great help. At that point, the only character I played was Soraka, a healer, that let him be very rough and tumble reckless and survive things he shouldn't have otherwise. More recently I had gotten good with a couple DPS characters, no longer being a one trick pony.

As with DotA, playing a champion in LoL takes me a good chunk of time to learn, it's frustrating and practice games for higher summoner level players are far and few between. You can't even practice with Bots right now because they have limited practice games to a minimum of 4 people. So until I played him today, with the afore mentioned friend, I had no experience with him. I will admit, for the first game, his help was awesome, he was playing a character he's very familiar with, which made him able to catch me if I were to Fall. By the third game, I was running around, going wild, saving my team mates from near-death situations. Except our Garen. He deserved to die. Over and over.

So, I ask to you: Have you had similar experiences? Games that don't appeal to you until you find that one niche that fills you?

Now that the obituary has been printed in the local news, I can actually talk about my entire summer.

It started with an incident that happened during my break between semesters. Won't go into details, everyone that needed to know anything already knows it, it was solved. What's important is what this caused.

It caused a lot of stress. This made my immune system go into the crapper. I got really sick and barely recovered enough to be able to breathe out of one nostril before classes started.

3 weeks into the semester, my uncle died. This wasn't a huge blow to me personally. I barely know any of the family on that side, but it caused high amounts of stress again, causing me to relapse.

Out of the two half-semester courses, I passed both with B's. During the second half, I withdrew from both classes. One, because the professor did not inform us what he'd be grading, and out of about 15 assignments he had us turn in, he graded us on 3, 1 of which he didn't inform us that we could turn back in if we got a no grade on. There was literally no way I could pass that class.

The other class, I withdrew from due to high stress. A week prior I found out my grandfather, the only person I really knew and cared about on that side of the family, had stopped eating because 'it disgusted' him. I dropped the second class secretly, but later that week I was suddenly glad I did.

2 weeks ago, today, my grandfather died, after we moved him to Providence Extended Care Center. He was smiling, he was happy before he passed, and he passed quietly.





Now that the entirety of my summer has been summed up, I apologize for lack of arts happening during that time, and I apologize more for the lack of it in the three weeks I have between classes again. I'm using these three weeks to try and cheer myself up. I need to try and be happy, if I'm not, I'll never make it through another semester. (Though, I should be happy. I have Metalsmithing and Jewelry Making this coming semester. It's something I should enjoy.)

So, for anyone who cares, that's the update of what I've been up to these last 3 months.

Thank you for your patience with me
-TJ

Everyone else has done it. *obligatory apology for everything offensive*

Rules: Go to https://www.urbandictionary.com and type in your answers to the following ten questions. Post the first definition it gives you.

1. What is your name?
Ergh. Why do all of my name entries have to do with genetalia...?

TJ
tiny junk: a super small penis.
That Kid Tj has "Tiny Junk"

2. How old are you?
22

The age after 21 where you realize you still have another 3 years to get your shit together
Haha I'm only 22

3. What is one of your friends’ names?
Tony

when something is good. great, awesome. exceptional. cool. like tony the tiger from Frosted Flakes.
Man i just got a new car that shit is so tony.

4. What should you be doing?
Drawing

Drawing is a form of visual expression and is one of the major forms within the visual arts. There are a number of subcategories of drawing, including cartooning, and certain drawing methods or approaches, such as "doodling," may or may not be considered as part of "drawing" as a "fine art." The word 'drawing' is used as both a verb and a noun: * Drawing (verb) is the act of making marks on a surface so as to create an image, form or shape. * The produced image is also called a drawing (noun). A quick, unrefined drawing may be defined as a sketch.
1. The drawings of Leonardo Da Vinci are amazing.
2. He was drawing a bridge.


5. What is your favourite colour?
Green (Second definition, since one of the people I stole this from has done the first)

1. adj. noob, unexperienced
2. n. Money
3. n. Weed, Marijuana
4. adj. Good.
5. The Color, Duh.
1. 15 Zero, Bitch. Get your green ass off my server.

2. No Shirt, No Shoes, No Green, No Service

3. Let's hit that Green Amnesia Shit

4.
Korben Dallas: Can I talk to you for a second?
Throws Ruby up against a wall
Korben Dallas: I didn't come here to play Pumbaa on the radio. So tomorrow from 5 to 7 your gonna give yourself a hand, green?
DJ Ruby Rhod: Supergreen.

5. Green Cars are Fugly.


'

6. Where were you born?
Anchorage

Biggest city in Alaska. Anchorage has roughly half the population in the state and is the starting place for the infamous Iditarod dog sled race. Winters are typically in the 30's and 20's with good snow. Summers are usually cloudy and in the high 50s, low 60s. Unlike any other city in the United States because its sales tax-free and has the most beauty. A growing rap and rock scene in the United States for sure.
Watch out everyone, Anchorage is comin' on up. Anchortown represent!!

7. What month were you born in?
February

February is the best month of the year. Its still nice and cold and snowy, but you know that spring is just around the corner if you're tired of all the bad weather. February is also the most unique month. 28 days long,(unless its every four years on a 'leap' year) Valentines day is also in February. (the fourteenth)It's a fun holiday named after St. Valentine, and it's for cute happy couples. Many single or unhappy peope celebrate the anti Valentines day, ie. Singles awareness day. People born in February are without a doubt the Cutest, Smartest, and Funniest set of people. If you are born after the 20th, you are also a PICES. This is the best Zodiac sign.
"Kristy is so cute! Shes nice too! How did she get so purfect and talented?"
"She was born in February"
"OF COURSE! THAT MUST BE IT"

"Eight days till march!"
"No. Nine days till march."
"*shakes head* Silly- this year is a leap year!"
"ahhhhhhh"

8. What day were you born on?
26

750ml of alky
1 mickey + 1 mickey = a 26

9. Who was the last person you talked to?
Kyle

Kyle: A generous, outgoing guy who goes out of his way for his friends. Can be sweet and caring towards people, he has a laid back and calm approach. Truthful, gullable, lovely and Sexy. Can be a bit of a stress head at times, can also hold grudges for a long period of time. Nice to get to know, easy to fall in love with. -The name Kyle comes from the Scottish origin. In Scottish The meaning of the name Kyle is: Strait. Channel. Narrow. Used as both a surname and first name. -The name Kyle is a baby boy name. The name Kyle comes from the Gaelic origin. In Gaelic The meaning of the name Kyle is: A place-name referring to the narrows; a wood or a church-Also an Irish origin.
Kyle You Sexxy Mama. ABC-It's easy as 1-2-3 (8) XD

10. What is one of your nicknames?
Grey

A type of extra terrestrial being (alien). Usually the most common amongst alleged abductees. Also the type most commonly connoted with the Rosswell, New Mexico crash site. Some believe Greys are of the same species of alien as Reptilian. This is debatable.
The Rosswell, NM crash site yielded several aliens. They were all Greys.


Dear god, what is wrong with me, doing this willingly?

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFf.

Actually, I found that Blizzard has no hold over me anymore. I used to adore waiting for their products, but it seems that they have taken away their primary thought process of "We'll release it when it's done" to "Cash in, cash in, cash in." I don't know if that's because of the merger from days of yore or what, but I have no joy from WoW, and I actually completely forgot today was the release date for SC2 until someone pointed it out to me.

I replied to them mentioning it with "Oh, that's coming out? I'm waiting for Monster Rancher DS."

Sorry Blizz, I'm only one person, but one day, you'll reevaluate your design style, and maybe you'll go back to wanting it to be done before release, until then, au revoir, Blizzard. Until we meet again.





... Also, because of the rapid release dates, I'm the only one getting MR DS, aren't I? *sigh* Oh well, online battle against people I don't know will be awesome.

For anyone who's talked to me, ever, just read the first paragraph, it's all that is important.

If you have had contact with me previously, and would like to do so again, I am considering getting an AIM account again. Note me if you would like that, add your AIM if you'd like, if not I can have Kysh tell me your names later.

Anyone else who dare, read beyond this point.

I guess, what I first realized today, is that I'm kinda a sad person. As it sits, I have a total of 4 friends, many acquaintances (in a good way), but out of them I only have two who I can physically interact with. It's not something you think about normally. I have never been concerned with it, really, because as far as social standards go, I'm definitively a recluse. I don't make friends easily, mostly because I have my own standards that are set fairly high. I guess that's because I've been jerked around so much all my life.

It's funny, though. I actually find myself enjoying the company of people I know online, even in passing, MORE than I have enjoyed being with people I've known locally for 6 years. That is to say, I enjoy my newer acquaintances exponentially more than I like people who I've been around physically for 6-10 years. So yeah. I'm screwed, aren't I?

This is going to also be the forewarning journal for the next rant. The next rant, when I get to it, will be on religion. This will most likely offend everyone. Congratulations, I'm not particularly sorry. I've had to deal with people without open minds for my entire life. People trying to convert me. People calling me Satan or the Antichrist since I was 6. I have quite a slant on religion, and I'm not particularly sorry that I'm going to get it off my chest.

Hopefully people who need to read this do.
-Grey

Welp, since over half of my recent most journals have been on this topic, I might as well do my rant on them.

Note: This is not meant to offend, this is just my opinion/notes on the topic. I do like offending people, though...

Now, as someone who's owned at least one of every paired set of games (Red, Silver (stolen), Ruby, Emerald, LeafGreen, Diamond, SS and HG now) I have been given plenty of time to notice trends, trends that I had hoped would have changed over time. One of these things is that people, not just people of the fandom, mind you, but all people, seem to gush over the same 10 or so pokemon.

First is Charizard. My first experience with Charizard, having always picked the Grass starter (In my main game from each set, I still do.), was having my rival beat the ever-lovin' crap out of me with it. My second experience was the anime, in which Ash saves a Charmander's life, and after evolves it's just a jerk back to him (this isn't including anything past the indigo league, I never even made it to that part of the series). This makes me wonder why in the hell it's so popular. It's just a dragon, wooo. It had a neat design when it came out, sure, but now, with people having pokesonas, it's also the most common one around. This is what. 13 or so years later? On top of all of this, Nintendo and Game Freak insist on making it a good competitor in the battling scene. Thanks, I really needed to remind that everyone likes jerks every couple of years.

Second is Arcanine. I guess I'll add Ninetails to this too. At this point, I had noticed a theme. Everyone likes the generation 1 fire pokemon. I can accept this, it's not that horrible for everyone to like a certain type, and I'll give Arcanine/Growlithe and Ninetaile/Vulpix that they are probably the pokemon who look most like the animals they are based on for the type. I'll also give them that fire types were very uncommon in generation 1, there being a total of 7, not including the separate evolutions.

Oh wait. No, I won't. Grass only had 6 final evolutions. Ice had 5, generation 2 adding only ONE more. Fighting had 4. Water had a whopping 16. So it wasn't undersaturation or oversaturation, leaving them the only ones that look like the animal they were based on. I can live with that.

Pikachu. I've said enough. Stab the electric rat and be done with it. I've had him shoved down my throat for 13+ years. Kill it. (Raichu on the other had is a-ok to me, if only because I love to imagine it flying or surfing.)

Lucario. Fine, it's a unique typing. Fine, it was in a movie. It's not that impressive or awesome, let it go.

Actually, I haven't had enough of fire type bashing yet, sorry guys. Typhlosion, Blaziken, Infernape. Fire starters, they're all relatively popular. Why do people as a whole have such an obsession with fire? It's combustion fueled by oxygen. It's not like these have any unique or relatively awesome designs anyway. I know among people I knew that Infernape got a pass by being a monkey. Screw that.

So what is that, 8? I could bash on legends, but I'm under the understanding that I'm the only person in the universe who dislikes most, if not all, of them. I could bash on most of the overused tier, but again, I'm apparently the only person who dislikes most of them.

So, instead, I'll give props to the generally unloved pokemon I've seen getting love.

Pinsir. This pokemon was overshadowed by Scyther during first gen, and then was left behind when Scyther got an Evolution in second gen. This makes me sad, as along with someone who I watch, who had recently drawn a pic involving Pinsir, I liked him much more than his scythe-wielding counterpart.

Smeargle. I know why this one is so unloved by active competitors, but why is it unloved by so many. Especially given that its specialty is kinda what this site was made for, the arts. (Yes, writing and music can be art. Shut up.)

And another bug, to end this on: Beedrill. I haven't actually seen art of this one, but it was one of my favorite pokemon for the longest time. It has a relatively awesome design, even with the newer generations and dammit, it deserves more respect than that pansy Butterfree.

So, there we are. One day I will completely understand people. Or maybe I won't and I'm being too hopeful. But I can't stand the sheer amount of love that uninspired designs are beginning to get. Ah well.

-Grey

# In response to my own thoughts on this, Charizard will be replaced by Nidoking or Gengar on my team to cream my friend with. *thumbs up*

And dammit, I'm already gushing over one. According to Serebii, it's Meguroko, the Desert Crocodile Pokemon. If it weren't cute enough for me to be gushing already, it's also a dark-type. <3

The only thing that would make me love it more is if it were a dragon-type or an ice-type, instead of ground, to go with the dark (because I am a sick person and am currently training a dragon team to beat up an acquaintance and crush him fully.)

I hope its evolution is awesome. And pushing my luck, I hope it gets the overpowered Earthquake. <3

-Grey


P.S. For anyone curious, since it's not meant to be a truly competitive team, I'll be rocking him over with: Weavile (My absolute favorite pokemon), Flygon, Yanmega, Charizard, Torterra and Kingdra. Yes, I do not know how to balance weaknesses well, however, knowing his personality, I have a feeling I'll have a strong advantage.

I have 666 page views.

Art forthcoming to celebrate my capture of the event. May not be until August, because summer classes suck.

Indeeeeeeeeeeeeeed.

God it took me long enough to actually man up and do this. NOTE: This is not meant to incite anyone into anger. While I love offending people as a pastime, this is simply a journal of me pointing out the things I've noticed as a healer in many different games now. If you feel guilty of anything written in here, well... YOU ARE A HORRIBLE PERSON.

Before I start, here's the short version for those who don't like reading miles of writing:
"tl;dr: Healers aren't at fault for most of what you bitch about. Look around, if there's any reason they might not have gotten to you, this includes your own stupidity, suck it up and bite your tongue. If not, then feel free to be the smug jerk you were. "

Now then, how to begin. In most, not all, but most games the healer is the most stressful job. You have to look after your own life bar (something I honestly forget about quite often), along with the life bars of between 1 and 7 (possibly more in end game content) other people, who are all running around in and out of your range.

Now, you may be saying to yourself: But if you have a good tank, you only need to look after one person! To this I'd say simply, "Splash damage". Many mobs, not including bosses, have AoEs of some form. Even with the best tank in the world, there is nearly no avoiding other people in the group getting hit. If you happen to be the only healer, and the group is spread out, this problem is only compounded.

And endgame content, this is compounded further, as you now have to look after up to 5 times the people. There's nothing like going into an endgame dungeon with 5 healers, having 3 on the 2 tanks and the other two taking care of the other 23 people, including those other healers. If you ever wonder why someone stops being a healer, it's because they can't deal with this level of multitasking. Or in my experience, I've actually had a fellow healer completely snap under the stress they gained in a 'raid' over a normal group dungeon.

In addition, before you're looking after other people, in most games a healer is often slow to level, especially if they're like me and prefer soloing. If you group, you're going faster, but you're also dragging someone behind as payment for it. In many games this is still a viable option. You'll level with something that's heavy DPS, you pay them by keeping them alive for as long as you can, and they pay you by giving you experience. Win-win. Yay.

On the other hand, you could pay for a 'leveling service'. I don't mean pay someone to play your account and grind your levels, I mean pay someone to rush you through things for quick exp. This is faster, in most cases, and you don't drag anyone down. You do, however, lose a lot of currency paying these people. Even more if they have the stipulation of 'I get all the loot'.

Now that most of the downsides have been looked at, let's see some perks: You're the most valuable role in the group. This is mostly true. You can say a tank is most important, or that they're on equal footing. I'll give you equal footing. At no time would a tank be more important to a group than a healer unless it's an endgame dungeon, and even then, you'll still need more healers than tanks. So if you're a competent healer, you're all set.

Note my wording there: competent healer. There are tons of healers out there who are there because their friends made them, or their guild wanted them to, and they honestly could care less about playing them right. These are the people who give healers a bad name. I won't say that every healer doesn't have quirks. I, for example, as I said above, forget about my own HP. I'll die faster than paper out in the rain while a hurricane is coming. At the same time though, I will be the only one dead. A healer without a slight quirk is a robot and shouldn't be trusted. (Though, that means the best healers in the world are soulless machinations...)

Now, as for what I had originally written this to talk about. When I was playing World of Warcraft during Burning Crusade, my guild had a saying. "If a tank dies, it's the healer's fault. If a healer dies, it's the tank's fault. If a DPS dies, it's their own damn fault." In that instance, for that time frame, it was very true. Then again, during this time frame the way to keep DPS alive was to yell "GET OUT OF THE FUCKING FIRE!!!" So your mileage may vary.

These days it's more complex, but you can still simplify it back to that point. You have to make certain concessions. If a tank isn't tanking, and a DPS dies, it IS the tanks fault. Really, the only time a death outside of a tank's is a healer's fault is if there is no tank, with one exception. I'll touch on that in a bit.

I've had rogues and other squishy characters pull crap off of me when a tank wasn't doing their job. I also felt remorse when they finally died after 5 minutes of healing spam. I know there's nothing more I could have done, doesn't change the fact.

Now, the only time it really is a healer's fault outside of a non-tank is when there is heavy group damage. It could be something as simple as the healer is undergeared. It could be as complex as trying to weave heals through waves of silence/stun. But in these instances it is the healer's job to keep people up. However, there is one major exception to this.

Before a battle, everything should be arranged. This means that you know exactly where the healers are gonna be. If you run off into a corner away from all the healers, then it's your damn fault you died. Generally, your setup will keep you near two healers. This gives you some leeway.

To emphasize this, there's a boss in a recent dungeon I was in who yells something and then spins around, moving rapidly through a room. When I was fighting this boss, I could easily stand in one place and not take a huge brunt of the damage, but it sent everyone else into a flying panic. I was spamming heals on everyone I could, and then someone, who had run all the way across the room, called me out for not healing them. I got a bad rap for it, even though I was doing everything in my power. Even if I had gone into a panic, odds are I still would've been too far to heal him.

Even more recently, I've been playing a game where you choose a separate character at the beginning of the game. I have actually had people quit in the selection screen when they see my best champion, because of so many bad players. Alternately, when they all chose fighting characters, they bitched about me being the healer I was, saying I'd be useless. About 20 minutes later when the bout ended, they were praising me.

The moral of all of this: Be kind to your healers, and don't look a gift heal in the mouth. Or I'll take my mace/staff/dagger and stab you with it. Repeatedly. I don't need your shit on top of the stress of keeping your ass alive.

HAPPY READING
-Grey

OH GAWD MY EYES! WHY HAVE YOU DONE THIS TO MEEEEEEE?!?!?! *his face melts off*

Still gonna get the grass starter, though. Hopefully its evolved forms will lose the legs that they saw fit to pop on a grass SNAKE pokemon. >.<

Anyone who hasn't seen them, look around here, or go to Serebii.net. You'll find them. And I'll resume crying, wishing that they had done some more thought on the designs.


Oh, yes, new mini-rant coming soon, because I can. I think I have enough rage built up about being a healer in games that the rant may not be so mini, though...

-Grey

I've started playing League of Legends. I'm doomed. That is all.

Edit: I guess if anyone wants to stalk me, I'm Alour in game (some jerk already took Greywords as their summoner's name. D= ). This is really all.

So, I had originally intended to update this with some real life "oh, I'm practicing, I'll have art/literature/excuses up soon", but then something hit me.

Me and my acquaintances have a sort of running joke. I'm a "Respectable Member of Society". In other words, I'm apparently the only person in all of Alaska who isn't into a drug of some kind. I'm not a heavy drinker (One, maybe 2, seldom 3 drinks a month). I don't do any 'illegal substances'. I'm really a rather boring person in that regard.

Well, I ended up hearing about them wanting me to hang out, but didn't want it to be awkward. Now, my stance on 'illegal activities' used to be "Don't do it around me, don't tell me about it and I don't care" which has transformed into 'don't make me/pressure me into doing it, and I don't care.'

It seems though, that it is more than awkward. It seems that because I am a 'RMoS' that I am being slowly... ah hell, quickly being pushed away from a group of people who want to be listed as 'friends' but honestly have no initiative to hang out with me unless it involves their respective activities.

So yeah. Moral of the story: I think I am hated by Anchorage for being normal, when I'm the least normal person outside of drug use.

-Grey

(Note: I fully Expect Kysh to show up here and correct information/offer more, alternately, he'll yell at me on MSN, WOO!)

I have recently seen a lot of 'furry' words used around, be it in a positive or negative light. (Mainly people using the words or not, liking or not, anti-some of them) One of them specifically bugs me...

Scritch. I have heard on multiple occasions that this is considered to be a 'furry' word. That bothers me, as it was a part of my vernacular growing up. I can promise you I have no furries in my family outside of myself.

So this leads to an odd predicament: Why, if I were to not use furry language, would I be looked as a hypocritical for using a word I grew up with? When did this word become considered exclusively 'furry'? Scritch was always the term we used to describe scratching our pet's belly or back. It always has been. (Then again, he was out only real pet, and was with us for several years before running off with senility. That's another journal for when I get depressed, though.)

So, yes, to the point. Why is scritch considered a furry word? Is it simply because it's not in a common use dictionary, and this group claimed it? Is it because no one knew this was in any vocabulary previously? Am I the only person in the world to experience this phenomenon, specifically with this word?

Who knows. Just bothers me that a word I've used for 21-22 years is considered a word from a specific group.

With a grain of salt
- Greywords

I'm into the fad, guys, looky! http://www.formspring.me/Greywords !!

Any question will go, it's mainly to give me something to do when I'm looking for something to do... like right now.

Because I know some of you look at my journals to prove me wrong, I'm expecting 0 questions to answer! Mwahahaha!

~Greywords