House of Ainsley: Out-of-Character Discussion

Why my compy and I have been AFK for a few days:


Big hardware upgrade.

The new keyboard is a Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000. As you can see by its design, it's going to take a lot of getting used to. But my old keyboard was crap, so it had to be done.

Man...using this thing doesn't feel very natural to me! You should see how many times I'm backspacing and correcting as I type this....

The new mouse is a Logitech G500 gamer mouse. It's pretty cool. You can set up several different control profiles for its ten buttons and quasi-buttons...one General set-up, one for Age of Conan, one for City of Heroes/Villains and what-have-you. It replaced my Saitek GM3200 mouse, which was a superb mouse. But my Saitek mouse's wheel button broke, so it had to be done.

The new graphics card is an ATI Radeon 4670, a pretty high-end graphics card with 1 gigabyte of onboard memory. It's replacing my old GeForce 7300 GT and its crappy 256 MB memory. The GeForce card stuttered like hell and got me killed frequently while playing Magicka, so we'll soon see if the Radeon 4670 can pass the Magicka challenge.

Besides setting me back about $210, I lost the use of both my mouse and my keyboard during installation. After a lot of tinkering, troubleshooting, driver reinstallation and BIOS work, I finally got my display back and my D: drive back. But my sound still doesn't work. A new sound card may be in order, too.

*sigh*

And I would have been back a few hours ago, except that I went to Walmart to pick up some spray air and a hand vac. I let my computer case get horribly dusty and cobwebby. It won't happen again. But while I was in the Electronics section, I made the mistake of trying the sampler X-Box and its full copy of Capcom vs. Marvel 3.


That game will suck you in. For hours. I finally had the sense to quit and get on with my shopping after two or three hours had passed.

I almost beat Galactus (on Easy, of course) with my Hsien-Ko/Chris/She-Hulk team, too. We're talking about getting Galactus down to a 3-millimeter sliver of health here. I make Hsien-Ko my alpha because she will tear a hole through Galactus' two doppelgangers; I couldn't quite time her teleports and air walks to get around Galactus' big huge hands, alas.

Man, I'm hating this keyboard....

Okay, what else has piled up in my mailbag this week?

Wraith wrote:

There are some good e-machines out there. But I would only recommend them for internet browsing. Most of them are still only using an Atom processor. Not really good for gaming on the go.

If you go for Dell, I'm not sure if it's the same over there, but here, they use the same chipping system as Acer.

I bought a compaq myself... the support system is varied. Sometimes its good, and sometimes its just... dead. But HP do own it.... so yeah. It was a cheapie too - you need to always have the battery in and they have a nasty habit of overheating. I've had to buy external cooling systems for this thing.

of course, I'm still running on Windows Vista - I think 7 is better and I'm still using the old duocore boards. But its a trooper. I think of getting rid of it all the time... but I haven't yet

My mum's got a HP - their support system is FANTASTIC. But they are a little more expensive. But mum's almost never overheats, I can run it for hours and its great. The battery life is noticebly better too - she's running windows 7.

Regretably, all of these upgrades have set me back on my quest for a laptop. But the desktop comes first. Goddess knows that Dad has to play his Spider Solitaire and check his GMail on something....

So what would you and your Mom have to say about Windows 7, while we're on the subject?

Wraith wrote:

And dude, you're still playing Sims 2?! Sims 3 is da bomb!!!!

But I almost have all of The Sims 2's expansion packs! My massive, five-story techno-ziggurat shopping mall will become reality, I swear it.

S.E.A.M.U.S wrote:

you pinky swear?


edit on 3/28/11

you have violated the terms of the pinkie promise. The gods cast "Agmir's Specific Leprosy" and your pinkie finger falls off.

Great. How am I going to clean the wax out of my ears now?

I see you, GD! Are you back from F.E. Warren yet?

The House of Ainsley wrote:

I see you, GD! Are you back from F.E. Warren yet?

Yes.

Hi Peeps

So.... I''ve been lax.

HoA: Nice keyboard, I'd love one like that

And windows 7 sucks. Just my opinion I thought vista sucked too... but i've been using it for few years now and its awesome, lol.

GD: *HUGGLES* Hit me up for an email dude, I miss you.

Seamus: You're awesome

And to whomever sneaks onto the site and NEVER signs up: (ie all my friends) - sorry I've been not around. Long story short,

Crappy internet-stormy weather-hectic study and exam stress-crashing my car-insane work etc.

I'll try to be around more often.

Thanks goes sincerely to HOA. Dude, you're the one keeping this thing alive. I love you.

No, seriously. I do.

Well, i guess upgrades galore is a semi-reasonable excuse for missing out on my posts... but there is no longer any excuse.... you may have your finger back... sorry if the devourer licked the flesh from bone first.

GoldenDrakon wrote:

The House of Ainsley wrote:

I see you, GD! Are you back from F.E. Warren yet?

Yes.

...annnnnd how was it?

Wraith wrote:

Hi Peeps

Hi!

Wraith wrote:

So.... I''ve been lax.

Hey, we all have our lax spells.

Wraith wrote:

HoA: Nice keyboard, I'd love one like that

It's still a pain to type on, though, with one hand over here and one over there and this huge gap between the T and the Y...but I'm getting used to it. I think. I still keep typing commas instead of periods, though.

Wraith wrote:

And windows 7 sucks. Just my opinion I thought vista sucked too... but i've been using it for few years now and its awesome, lol.

But man, Vista won't even let you blow your nose without its permission! I'll just stick to my Windows XP and like it, I guess. That or I can give Windows 7 a go, but for $160 for the full version it had better be good....

Wraith wrote:

GD: *HUGGLES* Hit me up for an email dude, I miss you.

Yeah, dude! Do the email thing, yo!

Wraith wrote:

Seamus: You're awesome

No, he's not. That's just the face he puts on for the public. Seamus sucks (clandestinely).

Wraith wrote:

And to whomever sneaks onto the site and NEVER signs up: (ie all my friends)...

...you are all stupid goat-shaggers!!!

See? Now they need to sign up if they want to tell me off and defend their good names! Popularity through antagonism. Live it, learn it, love it!

Wraith wrote:

sorry I've been not around. Long story short,

Crappy internet-stormy weather-hectic study and exam stress-crashing my car-insane work etc.

I'll try to be around more often.

We forgive you. Life happens.

Wraith wrote:

Thanks goes sincerely to HOA. Dude, you're the one keeping this thing alive. I love you.

No, seriously. I do.

Hey, give some credit to GD too! He's running that Divine Champions game that I'll be replying to soon...sometime eventually.

And now you have me blushing. Next post.

S.E.A.M.U.S wrote:

Well, i guess upgrades galore is a semi-reasonable excuse for missing out on my posts... but there is no longer any excuse.... you may have your finger back... sorry if the devourer licked the flesh from bone first.

I can has undead finger graft now?

PALE MASTER PRESTIGE CLASS, HERE I COME!

done and done... well, not really. I sent in a request to the forum masters. Hopefully they get other colour requests cos lime is cool

But if you're really stuck you can just enter it manually. Find the colour hex code that you want on this:

Hex Colour Codes

Hope that helps a bit

Yeesh, I hate hex codes. It's a lot easier to type "lime" than it is to type "#00FF00", y'know?

So how's your car, anyway? Did you get it unwrecked yet?

Also, tomorrow's my day off and I get to chill because it's the day after my birthday and all. I'm pretty sure I'll be finishing off all these prologue posts then. So who's up for Gametable Night?

i'm home today (cuz of my bladdr) so i may be able to keep up with you on post by postiienesss.. (after i watch Tangled and tron legacy with the kids)

The House of Ainsley wrote:

I'm pretty sure I'll be finishing off all these prologue posts then. So who's up for Gametable Night?

Silly question really.

Who ISN'T up for Gametable?

Okay, I just woke up from the most restful sleep I've had in at least two weeks. Let me grab some leftovers and a Dew from the fridge and I'll be right with you.

Who needs my IP number?

S.E.A.M.U.S wrote:

i'm home today (cuz of my bladdr) so i may be able to keep up with you on post by postiienesss.. (after i watch Tangled and tron legacy with the kids)

Tangled looks cute, and Tron Legacy looks brilliant.

How were they?

Tangled was pretty good, even for being a Disney kid movie. Tron was awesome. Great mix of FX and nostalgia.

I'd ask for spoilers, but I probably shouldn't.

Also, I'm hosting now. Go get Jazzy!

tron legacy, not so great. I feel that it would ahve been a much better movie if they hadn't tried to tack "tron" onto it. if they made it like 20 minutes longer and added a different backstory it would have been amazing. as it is, my sense of nostalgia is feeling sore in it's naughty bits.



Tangled is being added to my "buy this movie" list. it's a fun watch, and makes me want to play a swashbuckler armed with a frying pan.

also... something that a friend of mine directed me to


http://www.d20pro.com/

it looks pretty good, i'm going to be trying it out later this week to give my report. it does look like it's a lot more user frinedly than gametable. it also comes with a 30 day free trial if you wanted to check it out as well.

Hey guys !!!

Guess who's alive? Yep, its me! LOL

Sorry I haven't been around ( i seem to only apologise on this thing, don't i?

I've been reading around and I'm sorry for your down-ness HoA. You'll find someone. Trust me - we all do

I really hope it works out for you

I really don't have an excuse for not being here - I really just haven't been wanting to go on the internet - or my computer for that matter. *sigh* yeah, its really that bad

But I'll try to make an effort again - maybe I can get some other RPs running with the limited people we have - or maybe IV will just have to continue dying it's prolonged and agonising death.

We might turn around and build this forum around your game, HoA, instead and get people interested in other areas of the forum

That might be an idea!

LOL - have to think about it. What do you think?

Well, I wouldn't want IV to become the "All House of Ainsley, all the time" site; everyone else should have a creative voice and a story to tell too. Like GD's Divine Champions. I really like that topic(s), and I keep telling myself to get back on my frost giants. Maybe I'm just intimidated by finding silver and having to come up with uses for it, all while having to feed the tribe and worry about the trolls and the fire giants retaliating. Heavy is the head that wears the crown.

The Match site seems quite promising, though! Women keep looking me over, even though I still haven't paid for full access. Once I make my decision and give the site some money, who knows what might happen?

I'm still snarled in the opium haze of Neverwinter Nights, too. Since I can't access IV at work, I've been playing NWN on the sly (and on my porta-drive) instead. Sometimes I wonder if I should have gone with the Forgotten Realms pantheon instead of D&D 3's eclectic pantheon (with gods borrowed from Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk, along with a few new gods, including that infamous old archlich Vecna's promotion to godhood...which was a pretty cool development). My Cleric of Umberlee on the Forgotten Realms: Pirate Isles server just hit Level 8 and is still showing the peeps how Chaotic Evil can play well with others, as long as you emphasize the alignment's "deceptive and deceitful" aspect and go with a less homicidal variety of Evil. Being on an island nation where you can keep people in fear of your destructive ocean goddess is a bonus.

Anyway, I'm slugging on back to the forums. We'll see what tomorrow holds, shall we?

So, SEAMUS...how's that d20 Pro working out? Is it the Gametable killer that you predicted?

Well, i think that suggestion to make the site devoted to you may have been a silly moment for me... but still, some points do have promise. I think i may have to quite the IV idea for now - and bring others here on the premise of writing together, of creating a story. However, the IV preise is also what sets this place apart from others. It has/had a story line that actually wove its way through out the site itself. I think I need to work on the integration of all of it.

Oh, remember how I said that i'll be on more often. You probably though, yeah sure, whatever she said, right? Well, i have an excuse. I got sick. Yup, actually, really rolling around sleeping all day sick. Had nose bleeds non stop for about three days there too. It was horrible - luckily the bulk of it happened on my days off work - but i'm still sick. I get hot and dizzy and feel weightless alot nowadays too. And on my first day back (still majory recovering) at work, i was forced to work an 11 hour shift. Everyone flaked out on my boss and i was the only one that showed up for work.

Sucks to be honest, huh?

What have you decided about the site, HoA? Do you think you'll give it a shot?

Honestly, I think we're all slacking on the site lately...

Tal reminded me to get off my lazy dead ass and do something on Divine Champions, Ainsley has Chapt Zero storylines that have stood idle for over a month and Wraith and I have all but abandoned Illusion Vale all together.

We really need to get stuff rolling again all.

Y'know, we have nearly 30 good mambers, but they don't stick around or visit because there is not enough activity to keep them here. That being said, I well know the demands that real life puts on us all. We just need to make the attempt I suppose, and do whjat each of us can and stop putting it off.

For my part, I will get back to DC. Wraith's post is up and I will have Tal's done soon. I will even poke Jagged and remind him that he has a post too. I am also willing to revisit our IV stories if Wraith is willing to get back to it with me. We still gotta deal with the Skirls

What do you all think?

I suppose that its a catch 22.

I really am not enthusiastic about revisiting the Skirl situation, simply because there will be only one player. You. Kind of a downer. But, in the same vein, if we don't get it started again, then nobody else will pick it up.

As for DC... well, my mind is drawing a blank. I drew my own short straw and have a bitchy, one dimensional character... *sigh* I was such a teenager back then! LOL.

FOO FIGHTERS!!!!!!

*splurge* Don't you just hate Post Vomit?

Erm.. but yeah, we really should all give ourselves a swift kick in the gonads... and cute butts for us ladies.

As for Shadow... well, I don't think the motivation is there. I've given up on him coming back here. I guess he's like everyone else and will come back when things get going a little faster. *sigh* Anyways....

GD, hit me for an email and maybe we can start a dialogue on how to get this thing started again. Maybe put some more work into IV - perhaps a complete re-write. The idea may have gotten a little stagnant over the years. And yes, its been that long. LoL.

Okay, I'm walking in on the third reel here. What's a Skirl? o.O

I'm coming back soon, I hope. I've suffered a financial setback on getting that laptop so I can visit IV at work, and a lot of that involves my latest initiative to find Miss Right (or at least a Miss Will-Do until Miss Right comes along). But I'll spare you the details.

And Jazzy wrote me back about Gametable tonight, it looks like. I'd better get Gametable running now. Sleep deprivation's taken its toll with the springtime rush at work, but I think I can keep my head up for a few hours. Here's hoping that thunderstorm blowing through here doesn't knock out the power lines, because it's been a while since I've had a chance to do this.

So what did you have, Wraith? It sounds rather serious.

it's a bastardized spelling of "Skater Girl" aka a "Skirl" the flock to both malls and skateparks to distract the boys from watching what they're doing. At the skatepark this leads to hilarious consequences as the injuries begin to mount.

so how goes the hunt for Indiana Ainsley and the quest for Pork-emada's treasure? (that sounded much cooler in my head... and pork is as a euphemism for sex, not for heavy girls, cuz hey, big girls need love too!

Oh, not as well as I'd hope. But I'm still checking in with Match and keeping my fingers crossed.

Also, I just woke up and my stomach's feeling pretty foul. Let me get some breakfast in me and I'll be right back....

Hey! Where's Wraith? This could be a long-awaited Tinstone Warrens night, I'm thinking.

The House of Ainsley wrote:

Hey! Where's Wraith? This could be a long-awaited Tinstone Warrens night, I'm thinking.

Tha'd be sweet...it's only been what? a year now?