Day 03- A picture of you and your friends
Weirdly I think this picture I have is one with the most diverse selection of friends. It was taken on one of the days shooting the Zombie short film myself and my good friend Dan wrote together for a BBC aspirations project. There are other photos with my friends, just I think this one was taken during a pretty exciting time, as it was just a few weeks before this photo that I met my wife to be.
Day 02- The meaning behind your Posterous/Tumblr/Livejournal/Twitter name
Right so they are Dr Ether and Kris Ether.
My First name is Christopher so that answers a bit.
The Ether part comes from going to Whitby one year, wearing a very victorian outfit, but with some pvc mixed in. This my wife and I coined Etherpunk fashion, after the term Etherpunk used in the the roleplay game Etherscope.
The Dr part comes from me actually being a Dr of Chemistry. That also makes the Ether part have another few meanings (Ether is a name for a chemical, and comes from the term Ether, once used to explain how light moves through space).
This meme comes courtesy of my friend, a talented photographer, phuturatica
Day 01- A recent picture of you and 15 interesting facts about yourself Day 02- The meaning behind your Tumblr name Day 03- A picture of you and your friends Day 04- A habit that you wish you didn’t have Day 05- A picture of somewhere you’ve been to Day06- Favorite super hero and why Day 07- A picture of someone/something that has the biggest impact on you Day 08- Short term goals for this month and why Day 09- Something you’re proud of in the past few days Day 10- Songs you listen to when you are happy, sad, bored, hyped, mad Day 11- Another picture of you and your friends Day 12- How you found out about Tumblr and why you made one Day 13- A letter to someone who has hurt you recently Day 14- A picture of you and your family Day 15- Put your iPod on shuffle: First 10 songs that play Day 16- Another picture of yourself Day 17- Someone you would want to switch lives with for one day and why Day 18- Plans/dreams/goals you have Day 19- Nicknames you have and why you have them Day 20- Someone you see yourself marrying/being with in the future Day 21- A picture of something that makes you happy Day 22- What makes you different from everyone else? Day 23- Something you crave for a lot Day 24- A letter to your parents Day 25- What I would find in your bag? Day 26- What you think about your friends? Day 27- Why are you doing this 30 day challenge Day 28- A picture of you last year and now, how have you changed since then? Day 29- In this past month, what have you learned? Day 30- Who are you?
Welcome to the world of tomorrow. So yeah finally I bought a new TV. We had a fairly nice one that a friend gave me but that then died very promptly after a few months. So gone was the wide screen an in was the generic 21 inch CRT. I'm not a big computer gamer or TV viewer, but watching films and genre shows on it was bad. 21 inch 4:3 makes 18 inch 16:9. Not good.
So after something like almost 3 years I now have a nice, second hand, Sony Bravia 32 inch. Fucking wow!!! No really. From the top it is the right size for our flat. One recent joke I have heard recently is that if your TV is too big for your room (screen width is viewable from 1.5-4 times the width of the screen), then you are working class and trying to prove a point! So yeah, the TV is the right size. Any bigger and my eyes would be burnt out. Plus, weirdly, the living room now seems bigger. CRTs are fucking bricks! They block so much space.
So what have we watched on the Monolith? Well just normal TV and DVDs (no blu ray here). So things like PotC: Curse of the Black Pearl, Transformers, Devil May Cry Anime, Charlie Jade, FF7: Advent Children.
We have loads more visually stunning films to watch, but it's a case of being in the right mood for some films. First things that we have noticed? Basically standard TV and DVDs already look better. Digital TV is pretty decent. And computer games on the xbox and ps2 (oh how old school) look decent. So the real question is, should I get bluray? The TV is only 1080i/720p so bluray may well be wasted on it, and potentially useless unless you have a huge TV for you to even notice (human retina resolution issue).
Other news. Finishing off my first paper from Warwick. My new parameterization method works, and well, and so this paper is a proof of principle and another paper of mine in a very slim area of computational chemistry. Of course I am hoping to hear about funding, and I am applying for jobs. Roleplay wise I am sorting things out, slowly.
This has all the chance of becoming a rant. But I will try and stay on topic. It's all about communication.So why this topic. I will get to that as examples. Next up is the game. It is important that everyone has an idea about what everyone wants to get out of the game. You can't run a game that no one wants to play. Equally players can't play characters in a manner that is harmful to the game experience of the rest of the troupe. It is by communication that the desires of all troupe members can be ascertained and a balance can be met. Again, don't be afraid that you are going to hurt someone's feelings. Better to nip this in the bud now than to let it fester through 5 gaming sessions. In fact a persons expectations of a game can change over the lifetime of the game and it is important that this too is communicated.
Next, the players are struggling. So the game is basically what everyone wants to play. However, along the line it has got too difficult for the players to comprehend. They feel like they are lost, trapped, and basically have no control over the game. In that case it is important to make that known to the storyteller. Things can be easily tweaked and adjusted to make the game experience more fun and less confusing. Once more it is better to say these things rather than be afraid that the storyteller will take offence.
Next, Characters. Now I have come up against this a few times. And really I find the excuses for not doing so weak. But here goes. Playing in a roleplay game that is story (and thus character) drive, rather than dice roll driven, requires a certain amount of player commitment. You have a certain idea for a character you want to play? Fine, great. But please, please, please write out some form of background for them. Communicate the character concept, put the effort in. Otherwise, why bother? The game and the setting are not just the sole responsibility of the storyteller. Finally, and this is a big one relating to most of the above. If things are really not going well outside of game then just speak up, tell the person running the game and things will be fine. Simply not turning up, and not giving enough notice is plain rude! Now sometimes this is not always possible, but those times are rare. In this day and age a simple phone call and text to say you can't make it are easy. However, it is a bad habit to do this always on the day of the game, a few hours before. A day or so before means the person running the game can have time to reschedule things.
Now am I going to rant about my more personal experiences of any the above? No. Not yet. But that doesn't mean I am happy currently with certain things, and feel very annoyed. Simple good manners are hard to come by these days it seems.
Wacth out for what he says at 35:04 ... lol
Was my graduation. I have been officially a Dr of Chemistry for a year now, though really it is more like 15 months or so. Wow! However, this time last year showed which friends were really friends, so those of you who turned up to celebrate with me back then, thanks. It meant a lot then and still means a lot now.
This list is purely to help me, but then again it may amuse you.
· Write up Vampire session from last week.
o Includes a player character dealing with a death of a loved one.
o A massive political conspiracy which the players choose to go darkside with.
o The madness of the Circle of the Crone Winter Solstice rites.
· Write up more motleys for Changeling.
o So far I have focused on Spring Court centric motleys. Next up will be Summer Court.
· Restarting my efiction story that is based a lot on Mage: the Awakening.
· Write more gaming advice bits and pieces. Perhaps how to get the most out of your players? Dealing with difficult subjects in game? A mini review of Fading Suns and why I love it?
· My new tv. Second hand Sony Bravia.(I made sure the sucker was full hd and not hd ready). The lounge/kitchen in the flat now feels significantly bigger now the CRT TV of doom is gone.
o So far we have watched on it: Charlie Jade (intro sequence is awesome), FF7: Advent Children, Transformers, Bring it On (this was because in all that we needed watched something light hearted.... and filled with Kirsten Dunst :D )
o We will be watching: All of Devil May Cry anime again, PotC trilogy, The Matrix, 300 (or Zoo as a friend told me that his friend thought the poster said), and pretty much anything else. All non Blu Ray at this point
