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And doing it all day probably isn't either. But I did stop for meals, sort of. At least, long enough to cook them. Or put them in the oven. A little progress made, yes, but not a lot. It would appear the monsters are tougher than they should be. So I tend to die more than I do survive. Oh, well. It's okay. And that's kind of the way things have been. Tomorrow might be a bit more of the same. Although if I don't have people to adventure with, there's no way I can advance at any pace acceptable to me. I need people to soak up damage for me and sponge of their success. When you're the healer, that's all you really can do. It still feels a little strange, though. I don't know whether this game will continue when it goes to payment - I doubt I'll put the money forward for it. It's nice, but it's not interesting, really. If there were a way that I could solo well with the character, I'd think about it. Maybe that's why I'll like the .hack ORPG, because if it stays reasonably true to mechanics, then even the Wavemasters will have places to go and beat things down with. They just have to stay away from the magically immune monsters if they're soloing, that's all.
The batteries in my cordless mouse died, too. Luckily, my old mouse, which I kept around for such an occasion, is USB and took over nicely when called upon to do the work. Tomorrow, I will get batteries, I think, that recharge, and thus will not have to worry too much about the problem. At least not until the keyboard dies. Hee, hee.
Apparently that object that I made mention of yesterday sparked a few differing and varied responses. One person saw it as a way of feeling good about oneself without actually helping to alleviate the causes. Merit there, most certainly, and the comparison to "Support Our Troops" magnetic ribbons an apt one. From the noting that the situation in general was feasible, even if any specific incidents had not happened, there was an inquiry as to whether subscribing to the fundamentalist or evangelist viewpoint required a certain lack of intelligence to be effective. That eventually spun out into a discussion as to whether telling lies about the world (i.e. that condoms cause AIDS) to promote one's religious worldview / "save souls from damnation" was an acceptable and ethical thing to do. Perhaps being a pretender to scholarship, I told the story of the Illusory City from the Buddhist tradition, which was greeted with a question as to whether the rules changed when obvious tangible benefits were derived (as they were in the Buddhist story) from the deception. Whereas I examined the consequences of deciding personally whether to take up the challenge presented, another of my philosophizing friends went another layer up and challenged the premise itself. It's a well-thought out reason why not to just mindlessly repeat a meme or any other object without careful scrutiny of all of its points and premises. It also has some of the more standard arguments (sorry, C) about religion in general and the things that the religious believe. But rather than using it as a clue-by-four to beat about the head and shoulders of the unwashed masses, he uses it as an attractive scent to draw in the various factions and start dialogue when he has them all trapped next to each other. I think he shares my fascination with religion and the religious experience, as well as the idea that you don't really get it until you can get inside their heads and take a look around.
I also explained the "Fragments" view of reality that I'm using as a way of exploring the world and it's constructions to C. I'm sure someone else has thought of it, had it debated about and probably eventually discredited or relegated to the footnotes of science, but it works and provides interesting answers to a lot of the questions about how the universe works. It can fit in with the sort of world that I've constructed for myself, and explain how other people can construct worlds without any of the things I consider essential. (It's also rather handy for trying to explain my particular conception of the Soulbond Phenomenon, which might be why I like hanging onto it.) Maybe I'll take a break from the games tomorrow and just read. Could use the material, if nothing else.
School's approaching quickly. I'll wonder whether I'm cut out for grad work right up until I take my first exam. From there on out, I'll know. And if I'm half as bright as everyone's made me out to be, I can handle it. Here's hoping halfway isn't the farthest I get.
And now, to brush teeth, floss gums, and go to bed with my head slightly throbbing - I suspect it had something to do with sitting in front of the monitor for a considerable amount of time today - thus the reading tomorrow may also be a way of trying to avoid the eyestrain. Which is what I think this throb really is - eye strain.
The batteries in my cordless mouse died, too. Luckily, my old mouse, which I kept around for such an occasion, is USB and took over nicely when called upon to do the work. Tomorrow, I will get batteries, I think, that recharge, and thus will not have to worry too much about the problem. At least not until the keyboard dies. Hee, hee.
Apparently that object that I made mention of yesterday sparked a few differing and varied responses. One person saw it as a way of feeling good about oneself without actually helping to alleviate the causes. Merit there, most certainly, and the comparison to "Support Our Troops" magnetic ribbons an apt one. From the noting that the situation in general was feasible, even if any specific incidents had not happened, there was an inquiry as to whether subscribing to the fundamentalist or evangelist viewpoint required a certain lack of intelligence to be effective. That eventually spun out into a discussion as to whether telling lies about the world (i.e. that condoms cause AIDS) to promote one's religious worldview / "save souls from damnation" was an acceptable and ethical thing to do. Perhaps being a pretender to scholarship, I told the story of the Illusory City from the Buddhist tradition, which was greeted with a question as to whether the rules changed when obvious tangible benefits were derived (as they were in the Buddhist story) from the deception. Whereas I examined the consequences of deciding personally whether to take up the challenge presented, another of my philosophizing friends went another layer up and challenged the premise itself. It's a well-thought out reason why not to just mindlessly repeat a meme or any other object without careful scrutiny of all of its points and premises. It also has some of the more standard arguments (sorry, C) about religion in general and the things that the religious believe. But rather than using it as a clue-by-four to beat about the head and shoulders of the unwashed masses, he uses it as an attractive scent to draw in the various factions and start dialogue when he has them all trapped next to each other. I think he shares my fascination with religion and the religious experience, as well as the idea that you don't really get it until you can get inside their heads and take a look around.
I also explained the "Fragments" view of reality that I'm using as a way of exploring the world and it's constructions to C. I'm sure someone else has thought of it, had it debated about and probably eventually discredited or relegated to the footnotes of science, but it works and provides interesting answers to a lot of the questions about how the universe works. It can fit in with the sort of world that I've constructed for myself, and explain how other people can construct worlds without any of the things I consider essential. (It's also rather handy for trying to explain my particular conception of the Soulbond Phenomenon, which might be why I like hanging onto it.) Maybe I'll take a break from the games tomorrow and just read. Could use the material, if nothing else.
School's approaching quickly. I'll wonder whether I'm cut out for grad work right up until I take my first exam. From there on out, I'll know. And if I'm half as bright as everyone's made me out to be, I can handle it. Here's hoping halfway isn't the farthest I get.
And now, to brush teeth, floss gums, and go to bed with my head slightly throbbing - I suspect it had something to do with sitting in front of the monitor for a considerable amount of time today - thus the reading tomorrow may also be a way of trying to avoid the eyestrain. Which is what I think this throb really is - eye strain.
