OOC: Life and Times and Boats (RL and other things)
Mass Effect has not disappointed me so far. It is so beyond that. It has taken me on a rollercoaster of feeeeeeeelings I have not had the privilege of experiencing while playing a game or watching a movie for quite a long time. I've laughed, I've cried, I've been made to feel intensely guilty about some of my decisions, I feel like I've held the lives of actual people in my hands which.. from a roleplayer's point of view is an amazing feeling to have about the characters in the world you're immersed in.
Also, they are catering hardcore to my 'ship of choice so.. bravo to you, BioWare. I'm sure that a lot of other pairings got a lot of nice things but this one had so much potential to be squinty weird and strange but NO. Now it's just semi-awkward and adorable and humorous and SO ROMANTIC. And.. /melt.
Just make me an MMO now BioWare, plox. :D
I'M NOT DONE YET THOUGH SO YEAH I'M TRYING TO BE CAREFUL ON THE INTERNET WITH SPOILERS AND IT'S HARD, MANG.
In other news, we are at the jumping off point of our (hopefully) last deployment for awhile. I dropped Squall off yesterday. It was emotional, of course (how could it not be?) but not as hard as it was the first time. I'm getting better at this! It helps to know that I can do it. And also that I have SHIT TO DO so I'll be busy as well. Kinda.
I toured the ship on Friday and it was a very different experience from the first time I visited, which was back in November of 2010. At that point they were doing some maintenance on several passageways and a lot of it was blocked off and made it seem a lot worse than it really was. This time I actually got to see quite a bit more of the ship besides his office and the hangar bay. The ladderwells were terrifying. It was rainy that day and my waterproof muck boots do not have the best traction ever. Couple that with these super steep ladder steps that only had nonskid on them sometimes and railings that go all the way up sometimes and I got nervous. Meanwhile every sailor is zipping up and down these things like it's nothing. It's impressive to watch.
I got to see the officer's deck and at least got to look down the passage at the Admiral's office and then we went out to the flight deck. Arguably one of the coolest places I can say I've gotten to go. The nerd in me couldn't help but marvel at the fact that airplanes take off and land in such a short space. I've only ever seen it from the ground and it looks a lot bigger at a distance, but standing on it changed my whole perspective, considering how much space you need at, say, an airport runway. I realize of course that fighter jets operate differently than commercial jets and they have other technology at play there to make it all possible, but that just adds to the mind blowingness.
I would've taken pictures of the depressingly dreary, rainy, and grey-brown Virginia bay (as it looked that day) off the side of the ship but I'm constantly in a mindset where I never know if I'm allowed to, so I didn't. XD
I should totally rent Top Gun now just for lulz and because I can go I'VE BEEN THERE.
You definitely leave a tour of a working ship with a real sense of appreciation for the people that work there. Especially the ITs (though I'm admittedly biased, hee) because one glance upward reveals the mind boggling amount of wires and cables and old ass everything that has to be maintained to make sure everyone can do their job. I also totally bumped into a couple guys that I assumed were pilots because of their pilot-y jumpsuits and got all nervous because they're pilots.
We're looking at about six months right now, with a possible extension to eight months. But honestly? They've been saying that for years. And they said that last time but didn't turn around. He seems to think that you would be crazy to extend the Enterprise! I guess we'll find out when the time comes. No one ever really knows for sure until they're out of the Med, but it sounded like everyone I spent any time around last week had a "we really don't want to push it" attitude whenever they discussed it.
I'm glad we got to celebrate my birthday before he left, which was cool because last year we were three months into a deployment and the year before that we were getting ready for boot camp. We both got tattoos! This was the first time we were able to get tattoos together. He got another Zelda tattoo, this one the symbol for the Gerudo tribe. Definitely my favourite so far. :D He also has the Goron symbol and the Zora symbol. I got the Renegade star. I am incredibly happy with it, even more so then when I got my Curse Seal. It brings us great joy to have geek tattoos. :D
So now I've signed on to work on a project with a couple people from college and help them do concept art. It's another good lesson in trying really hard not to judge other peoples' ideas. I had a similar problem with the tattoo commission that I did awhile back. Only these are concepts for what they hope to pitch as an MMO-style game someday and..
I'm sorry. But Fisherman cannot be a class in a game about fighting wars (there are also apparently a Farmer and Merchant class). I mean.. really. I want to see that talent tree. Maybe the Combat Angler spec would allow you to dual wield tuna or something.
Neither of them have played an MMO in their lives, so it makes me squint at trying to design for one. Not everything has to be a Warcraft clone, but you should at least have some basic idea as to what aspects of the genre make them successful. But I support people having dreams and I support people giving me work, so I'll go along with it. But god forbid I ever try to provide examples of how Blizzard or BioWare or Square Enix or even NCSoft did things right in actual, real, MMOs that people pay for and they just look at me like.. how is that applicable to what we're doing because we're so original! Nnnnng. I just have to draw. BECAUSE THINKING ABOUT IT MAKES MY BRAIN HURT OKAY.
To that end, I have concept art to.. conceptualize. And possibly an awkward Skype call tonight when I'd rather be killing Reapers. D:
I need that as like a bumper sticker now.
Also! Soon! I will have a tumblr! For art and randomness and good times! I'll link whenever I figure it out!
Also, they are catering hardcore to my 'ship of choice so.. bravo to you, BioWare. I'm sure that a lot of other pairings got a lot of nice things but this one had so much potential to be squinty weird and strange but NO. Now it's just semi-awkward and adorable and humorous and SO ROMANTIC. And.. /melt.
Just make me an MMO now BioWare, plox. :D
I'M NOT DONE YET THOUGH SO YEAH I'M TRYING TO BE CAREFUL ON THE INTERNET WITH SPOILERS AND IT'S HARD, MANG.
In other news, we are at the jumping off point of our (hopefully) last deployment for awhile. I dropped Squall off yesterday. It was emotional, of course (how could it not be?) but not as hard as it was the first time. I'm getting better at this! It helps to know that I can do it. And also that I have SHIT TO DO so I'll be busy as well. Kinda.
I toured the ship on Friday and it was a very different experience from the first time I visited, which was back in November of 2010. At that point they were doing some maintenance on several passageways and a lot of it was blocked off and made it seem a lot worse than it really was. This time I actually got to see quite a bit more of the ship besides his office and the hangar bay. The ladderwells were terrifying. It was rainy that day and my waterproof muck boots do not have the best traction ever. Couple that with these super steep ladder steps that only had nonskid on them sometimes and railings that go all the way up sometimes and I got nervous. Meanwhile every sailor is zipping up and down these things like it's nothing. It's impressive to watch.
I got to see the officer's deck and at least got to look down the passage at the Admiral's office and then we went out to the flight deck. Arguably one of the coolest places I can say I've gotten to go. The nerd in me couldn't help but marvel at the fact that airplanes take off and land in such a short space. I've only ever seen it from the ground and it looks a lot bigger at a distance, but standing on it changed my whole perspective, considering how much space you need at, say, an airport runway. I realize of course that fighter jets operate differently than commercial jets and they have other technology at play there to make it all possible, but that just adds to the mind blowingness.
I would've taken pictures of the depressingly dreary, rainy, and grey-brown Virginia bay (as it looked that day) off the side of the ship but I'm constantly in a mindset where I never know if I'm allowed to, so I didn't. XD
I should totally rent Top Gun now just for lulz and because I can go I'VE BEEN THERE.
You definitely leave a tour of a working ship with a real sense of appreciation for the people that work there. Especially the ITs (though I'm admittedly biased, hee) because one glance upward reveals the mind boggling amount of wires and cables and old ass everything that has to be maintained to make sure everyone can do their job. I also totally bumped into a couple guys that I assumed were pilots because of their pilot-y jumpsuits and got all nervous because they're pilots.
We're looking at about six months right now, with a possible extension to eight months. But honestly? They've been saying that for years. And they said that last time but didn't turn around. He seems to think that you would be crazy to extend the Enterprise! I guess we'll find out when the time comes. No one ever really knows for sure until they're out of the Med, but it sounded like everyone I spent any time around last week had a "we really don't want to push it" attitude whenever they discussed it.
I'm glad we got to celebrate my birthday before he left, which was cool because last year we were three months into a deployment and the year before that we were getting ready for boot camp. We both got tattoos! This was the first time we were able to get tattoos together. He got another Zelda tattoo, this one the symbol for the Gerudo tribe. Definitely my favourite so far. :D He also has the Goron symbol and the Zora symbol. I got the Renegade star. I am incredibly happy with it, even more so then when I got my Curse Seal. It brings us great joy to have geek tattoos. :D
So now I've signed on to work on a project with a couple people from college and help them do concept art. It's another good lesson in trying really hard not to judge other peoples' ideas. I had a similar problem with the tattoo commission that I did awhile back. Only these are concepts for what they hope to pitch as an MMO-style game someday and..
I'm sorry. But Fisherman cannot be a class in a game about fighting wars (there are also apparently a Farmer and Merchant class). I mean.. really. I want to see that talent tree. Maybe the Combat Angler spec would allow you to dual wield tuna or something.
Neither of them have played an MMO in their lives, so it makes me squint at trying to design for one. Not everything has to be a Warcraft clone, but you should at least have some basic idea as to what aspects of the genre make them successful. But I support people having dreams and I support people giving me work, so I'll go along with it. But god forbid I ever try to provide examples of how Blizzard or BioWare or Square Enix or even NCSoft did things right in actual, real, MMOs that people pay for and they just look at me like.. how is that applicable to what we're doing because we're so original! Nnnnng. I just have to draw. BECAUSE THINKING ABOUT IT MAKES MY BRAIN HURT OKAY.
To that end, I have concept art to.. conceptualize. And possibly an awkward Skype call tonight when I'd rather be killing Reapers. D:
I need that as like a bumper sticker now.
Also! Soon! I will have a tumblr! For art and randomness and good times! I'll link whenever I figure it out!