Things have been hectic and work has been piling up.

There are deadlines looming and procrastination has no longer an option.

But, if I can actually get it together to defend by May look out for waaaaaaaaaaaay more action up in here very soon.

In the mean time this will keep you busy for hours. Fun, fun, fun!!

8:59pm Nerdy, nerdy Fandom Forum Show commercial… will I watch that too. Who knows. Stay tuned.

9:00pm OK, here goes.. Pre-fall of Caprica Starbuck seems lame. Don’t you think?

9:02pm Adama refusing a lap dance, really? But Tigh seems like lots of fun. 

9:05pm Of course Rosalin drinks white wine. And of course she’d end up on a blind date with a student.

9:07pm YYYYYEEEEAAAAAAH TIGH, YYYEEEEEAAAAH!!!!

9:09pm puking on yourself totally trumps just drooling on yourself, Adama. Woo Hoo Retirement!!

9:19pm So Gaida’s lover is Admiral now, and the lawyer is president. This makes me think that Adama and co. are not gonna successfully make it out of this one.

9:20pm Baltar finally ditches his hoard of brainwashed babes. OH SNAP the humans have centurions. Free their minds and their asses will follow, apparently.

9:24pm love that they’re dusting off the ancient ships for this one…

9:27p Oh Shit! That’s a lot of fire power. They needs Anders ON.

9:28pm He did it. 

9:29pm I love the blunt and brutal force of the Galactica attack. It’s so typically human.

9:32pm We all knew that if any of the raptor pilots were going to die early and horribly it was gonna be Skulls. Why is it that red-shirts and black guys are the first to go on TV?

9:36pm Do you think that the centurions get pleasure from killing their fellow toasters?

9:38pm Woah, can’t wait to see what happens with Baltar and Six now.

9:40pm They better get the girl and then shoot Boomer… Seriously.

9:41pm SWEEEEEEEET! She did it. 

9:47pm Gotta say, I’m loving Baltar the soldier. He’s got one hell of an itchy trigger finger. Just like me…

9:48pm Can’t wait for that damned Opera House vision to be explained

9:51pm Hera is very slippery. Looks like they should get her one of those leashes you sometimes see on kids.

9:53pm Will Hera, Baltar and Six be the only remaining survivors???

9:56 pm Seriously, why don’t they just shoot Cavil and then just take Hera? I don’t get it.

9:58pm Didn’t they already make a deal with the cylons that totally backfired. They really need to shoot Cavil. I’m not buying this “leap of faith” thing. Lame.

10:00pm That Gillette Sculpting Gel commercial has resurrected the “Gay Downs”/”Gay Face” debate between Shiv and I.

10:04pm Oh shit, Tori gonna be in trouble!! They’re gonna know about Callie… OH SNAP!!! Chief is gonna be soooooooooo pissed.

10:06pm That was awesome. So glad Chief did that. Then Cavil **killed himself**– that’s some cold, cold shit. Now it’s getting good.

10:08pm Is Starbuck gonna jump them into their destruction, a la “you will lead them to their destruction”?? Or will she finally find earth??

10:15pm That really was Galactica’s last battle. What are they gonna do with a ripped open ship??

10:17pm ACTUAL EARTH!!!! Woah….

10:18pm So I was totally wrong about them not making out of this one. I’m glad.

10:19pm It was totally BSG crew who left behind all those crystal skulls.

10:22pm Wonder if we are gonna see Daniel, the 8th cylon?

10:37pm Where is Adama going? Where is Starbuck going?

10:40pm Abracadabdra!  Where did she go? We better find out “what” she is. And it better not be an angel or a pigeon.

10:50pm Too much god shit. It’s a total cop-out. This is getting shittier by the minute.

10:53pm I know they want to “break the cycle” and all, but really, spreading out like that doesn’t make any sense for survival. 

10:56pm This is the stupidest ending ever.

11:00pm WORST EPISODE, EVER.

That’s right folks, VAMPIRES!!! 

The article tries to make it seem like vampires are “not real” and just a superstition used to explain plagues and other pestilence.

WTF? We all know better. Right?

 I mean if this guy, this guy and these guys aren’t real vampires, then I don’t know what to believe any more.

Also, FYI: how to become a psychic vampire.

  

**make sure you watch the video and click the link on the page I’ve linked to. Seriously.

I don’t know if I could eat that, but I’m willing to try. No one likes a whiner or a quitter. Time to bust a gut. 

Maybe to celebrate APRIL 5TH!!!!!!

B-B-B-B–B-B-B-B-B-B-B-BURNIN’ DOWN THE TRAILER PARK!!!!

This got me thinking about my own lack of coolness, as evidenced by this blog which has, to date, chronicled my love of (MMO)RPGs, my interest in grimoires, my terrible eating habits, my small-claims law suits and my love of embarrasing myself (and my friends) on a karaoke stage. I think I’ve been missing those high-highs that come with being a cool dude.

So, I’m thinking that in addition to making magnetic compasses which will serve to discover the treasures and ores in the bowels of the earth, attempting to make myself invisible and strengthening my procreative organs, I’m also going to try to be cooler. While, I already know that wearing Actorius on my neck will make me bold and beloved by all mankind, I want to up the ante even further and add some awsomocity into that equation.

But I don’t know really know how to go about do that.

Maybe I need to make a list… like this one:

Or maybe I need to ask around for some answers. 

May be I need to dress better and/or spend a little more time on my look

Or maybe I just need to drink and do more drugs. 

Either way, I’m asking for YOUR help. I want to make a list of the top 10 ways LD can make herself cooler. I have two entries so far:

1) hair gel
2) learn to drive

Please help me come up with 8 more…

At least not yet.

I’m going to spend the next little while testing the efficacy of this collection of remedies and magics (both sympathetic and natural). I’ll post the results soon.

To make a Magnetic Compass which will serve to Discover the Treasures and Ores in the Bowels of the Earth.

For this purpose a magnet made of the plusquam perfection, accompanied by the prime material of which all metals grow is requisite: with this, the magnet of the compass must be strengthened. Around the compass are engraved the charac teristic signs of all the seven metals. If it is desired now to ascertain what kind of a metal is most likely to be found in a hidden treasure or in ore beneath the earth, it will be only necessary to hie to that particular spot, where the magnetic rod has given the indication, but you must put your foot there where the perpendicular shows its attractions, and take of every metal a small piece, that is, one as heavy as the other, and lay it upon the resp. character and the needle will rotate to that metal which predominates under the surface of the earth, and there it will stand still. 

 
Account of an Experienced Fortune Hunter, how Treasures be neath the Earth Rise and Fall.
If one is contemplating to dig up a treasure, he should above all other things know, whenever the treasure stands highest, to rise with the sun and return again with the sink ing of the same. If the treasure happens to be hidden in an open field, the affair will soon be righted by digging around, crosswise, or undermining, so that the treasure can be reached I from below, but one must not he tardy in constructing the posts or galleries in order to prop the treasure in time, because the digger might otherwise be buried underneath the falling heap. But, if it can he so conducted that the sun can shine crosswise under the treasure, it may be raised, since the goblins of the earth have no longer the power to remove the same. 

 
To make One’s Self Invisible.
You must obtain the ear of a black cat, boil it in the milk of a black cow, then make a thumb cover of it and wear it on the thumb, and no one will be able to see you.

How to be able to see in the Darkest Night.
Grease the eyes with the blood of a bat.

To strengthen the Procreative Organs.
Take twelve ounces of imperial spices, two pounds of white sugar, twenty-four grains of opium, one ounce of borax, four ounces prepared steel filings, twenty drops of cinnamon oil, twenty drops of oil of cloves; of these articles prepare a powder. Take a pinch, or as much as covers the point of a table knife, every hour throughout the day. Bathe the body often in warm water, and the organs in cold water. After this cure you will be stronger than ever before.

To cause the Hair to Grow wherever you wish.
Take milk of a slut, and saturate therewith the spot wher ever the hair is desired to grow.

When Milk is Stolen by Witchcraft.
Wash the outside of the milk pails which you use for milk ing with essence of Tonquin bean. Repeat this several times while milking the cows, and the witches’ butter and cheese will have a bad odor, such as is frequently observed.

How to make Yourself Bold and Amiable.
The stone called Actorius is to be found in the craw of any old capon. He who wears such a stone on his neck, will always remain bold and beloved by all mankind

A Magic for One who has been Infatuated by Illicit Love to a Female.
Such a person must put a pair of shoes on, and walk therein until his feet perspire, but must walk fast, so that the feet do not smell badly; then take off the right shoe, drink some beer or wine out of this shoe, and he will from that moment lose all affection for her.

Here goes:

My name is Lauren and I love role-playing video games.

Update (March 4, 09): The Guardian just did a piece on WoW gold farming. See, this blog is timely and relevant.

Usually I prefer single-player role playing games like Oblivion and Fallout . I like spending time creating my characters (ladies only, please.), I like picking their facial features, hair, class, race, etc., I like coming up with names to suit their characters, and I like spending hours wandering through digital worlds. I am currently playing an evil lone-wolf type character on Fallout 3 named “Chuck Bass”–she blasts through quests with little regard for the characters and environments she encounters–she just blows shit up and acts like a total D-bag. It’s awesome. 

However, things do get more nerdy than that.

I also like to play Dungeons and Dragons-based video games, like Neverwinter Nights. These kinds of games are turn-based and can sometimes require a little more strategy than just emptying your giant gun into some unlucky sap.

Worse still, I also like to play MMORPGs like World of Warcraft.

Yes, I am one of the over 11.5 million who wander around Azeroth trying to get twenty loads of quality soil samples from Un’Goro; collect 1 Desecrated Bindings, 6 Wartorn Cloth Scraps, 1 Arcane Crystal and 1 Nexus Crystas for Archmage Angela Dosantos; and rescue Captain Boneshatter inside Hellfire Citadel before he is executed. 

World of Warcraft (or WoW) can be a very fun game, it’s got a large world to explore and plentiful quests and characters to interact with. But, it is, by no means, my favourite. There are  lots of things about WoW that I dislike.

Generally, I prefer solo play–I don’t like making in-game friends to go on instances with. However, to get ahead in WoW you need to join a guild and do this kind of thing. Also, soooo many of the quests you need to complete are pretty repetitive (eg: collect 20 soil samples, wtf??) and I get sick of doing them. Combine that with low drop rates and you’re at the same boring quest for a long, long time. Boooooo! Also, it expensive to play. After buying the initial software, you have to spend hours installing updates before you can actually get going–then, after spending all that time and money , you have to pay a monthly fee for the privilege of accessing your character and the game world. BOOOOOO! This is a major problem for me.

But World of Warcraft does have an incredible appeal to me outside of simple game play. Due to its immense world-wide popularity, a vibrant and distinct culture and economy has emerged from this game.

You can, for example, use your real-world money to buy gold and gear for your characters–or even whole game  accounts off of people. However, the use of real-world currency to buy in-game virtual assets has led to the emergence of nefarious practices such as  gold farming and account theft. Nasty business. (But perhaps occupations to explore  while I’m at home, on the computer and under-employed….)

You can also find a plethora of artworks and material culture inspired by WoW, including, but not limited to: costumes, video homages, and, of course, pr0n (an elegant combination of costume and video).

While there is a large part of me that wants to find out why it is that Rogues do it from behind, and wants to know how Bonan’s rage will tame a sexual demon, the one thing I desperately want right now is one of these:

And, maybe, some one to tell me how I can get this on my iPod:

***up next–learning to play Magic Cards. The Magic Card thing passed me by in elementary school. Too bad. I hear it’s fun. I think I’ll head down to my local nerd-shop and pick up a starter kit. Any one out there wanna play?

I’ve been under-employed for some time now. This has mostly been by choice since

a) I need to finish my thesis, and

b) I’m lazy

But it’s all catching up with me now and I need to start making “mad cheddar” (as the kids say)–meaning, I have to start working regular hours, just like a regular person. 

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!     WTF????!!?!?!?!?!     You know?

Got any get-rich-quick tips?