Yeah, that's what happens when you've got n hours of sleep and n is less than eight.

Well, after being convinced to have a look at the thing and set up an account, Facebook seems to be a potential timesink on a par with the best of them; hopefully awareness of this and antisocial tendencies will be enough to prevent such in my case.

On an entirely separate note, the above sentence was the result of an internal monologue some months ago which had nothing whatsoever to do with Facebook and more with an excess of mathematics, meta, and actual verbalizations in said internal monologue. The sentence was saved for future reference and amusement here, and I decided not to remove it.

Yes, I'm alive. Why do you ask?

Now, for the actual topic.
Have been doing a bit more exploring of the language (that gibberish I've stuck at the top of the page, in the unlikely event you were wondering) - still have no idea what most of it means, but at this point that's being relegated to the infinite procrastination section. Anyway - decided to come up with a sort of phonetic (Latin-alphabet) writing system for it, so I could get a sense of the patterns involved. And it's worked to some degree - I'm still not sure in a lot of cases where the morpheme boundaries are, but then again that's just a matter of figuring out more words.

Anyway - there are a few personal idiosyncrasies I've stuck in the present writing notation for aesthetic (there's no "j", "f", or "w") or keyboard purposes ("c" for the palatal fricative, because "ch" would be ambiguous when starting a word such as "cirzanant").

The point? No idea. Also stuck in the infinite procrastination section.

At present, I suspect I'll be fiddling around with each every now and then, though the first is something more of a mandatory summer project than something to tinker with.
The English bit is a recent redevelopment, inspired by a pair of online written serials (though perhaps more accurately described as crosses between a webcomic and a book) called Tales of MU and Star Harbor Nights.
Less sure about the composing, as I never really got the hang of standard musical notation. Still, it would make sense to record some of the melodies before I forget or change them. Of course, it would also make sense to be more diligent about recording the language (or collection of gibberish, I'm still not sure) that seems to come out more frequently now, but I'm not really doing that either.

...then again, I'm not so much for talking-at-the-world; prefer talking-at-single-people, it makes it harder to leave people out of it.

Haha!
Pardon the exuberance. But the Standard of Heroes is an achievement worth mentioning, I think. At least, with regards to Diablo II. Nevermind that it doesn't actually do anything.
My contribution to the group:

And lifetap, but that's standard. There's a sort of standard party that's needed to go after the "Ubers" - a paladin for reliable crushing blow (via Smite), a barbarian and a druid to make sure everyone has decent amounts of life (via Battle Orders and Oak Sage), and a necromancer to make sure the barbarian and paladin stay healthy in melee (via Life Tap). Someone also has to have crowd control, but they've all got options for that - 'cept the paladin. I have Bone Prison, for example (as seen in the top right quarter of the screenshot), while the barbarian has Leap or Howl, and the druid may well have castable minions.

Nearly a month... the responsible part of my brain (Kaev) thinks I should be doing better than this. The rest of it claims that it's not really necessary, and journals haven't been your thing before, have they? Though the second-person address is.
Anyway, a little sample of what I've been doing with my time...




More shots later I suppose.

As the title implies, brother recently Stumbled - more random software that basically links you to a semirandom website based on your preferences, like Google's "I'm Feeling Lucky" button with extra luck - on a sandbox-style game on one of the many free-game sites available on the web. Titled "Falling Sand", it's rather an interesting study in particle physics if you take their labels of the different particles with a grain of salt (for instance, 'water' is a type of particle, 'salt' does not dissolve in said water, and 'oil' is a particle which seems to be somewhat heavier than water - these would work with specific oils and salts I suppose). The differences in the particles come with how they interact with the non-particle things you can put in with the cursor, which is in this basically a limited paintbrush tool. Salt is pretty much inert, while water is the most interesting due to its ability to grow interesting treelike structures out of (fittingly enough) 'plant' material, which isn't a particle and therefore isn't continually falling. Said plant material (and oil too) is also amusingly flammable.

It's an interesting site, and for what it's worth I'd recommend it (the link's http://www.flashgames2play.com/downloads/sand/green.htm), but note also that it's a study in lag - all those particles are a pain for a comp to keep track of. And the flames. The flames especially.

There has been for a while the distinction between casual gamers and 'hardcore' gamers - basically, between those who view a game as an occasional leisure activity and those who view it as the only leisure activity (and occasionally as an occupational activity as well). I suspect I'm more toward the 'hardcore' side of the spectrum, but regardless, that's not the point of this entry (is there one? Not sure yet).
One of the things I'm oddly fanatical about is making sure that the names of my avatars are original. No, this doesn't entail using Google to see if anyone's come up with it first. I'm fairly confident that names like 'Khaera' and 'Tenvarys' haven't been taken. But if you'll notice from these examples, I'm talking about actual names, not name-underscore-number tags that you find rather often in online 'role-playing' games. Anonymity does not mean it's fine to be generic, and I would rather play with people than with archetypes. The name you choose can reveal or obscure your persona, which is fine - that's anonymity. But it also plays a role in first impressions - they may not know you, but do they want to know you?

Ah, summer. Luxury... for the plants. Even seventysome degrees can become unpleasant if accompanied by enough humidity, which it was; eightysome is more so. On the one hand, we haven't yet unleashed the air conditioning. On the other, we haven't yet hit June. The basement is still cool though; one more reason we have the computers down here, and one more reason I consider myself a troglodyte.
Oblivion (and more recently, Ghost Recon) are back on the back burner; partly because the 360 is hooked up to the same TV dad prefers to zone out to, and partly because said TV is not in the basement. The old standard has returned, and I'm back to working on my characters (have worked on a frost strafer and a melee enchantress just now).
Also occasionally discuss what Diablo II would look like if it were made into a movie, and what the character dynamics would be - so far we (read: brother and self) have decided that the necromancer has the best lines and is overall most interesting, with the assassin and amazon taking second and third place respectively for lines, and the paladin making for a good if somewhat stereotypical foil. Sorceress would almost have to be included for the spectacular skill potential - after all, she's the one who can call in the medieval air support, so to speak. And seeing large flaming rocks land on your enemies is rather therapeutic (though oddly enough, I've never made a character for it). Her in-game lines are often generic, but there are a few gems (of the Arcane Sanctuary: "This place actually distorts reality... fascinating."), though not nearly as many as the necromancer (of the Horadric Malus: "All this for a hammer?", and upon completing the 'Tainted Sun' quest: "What a pity... I was beginning to enjoy the darkness.") or the assassin (a chuckled "They'll never see me coming" as she first enters the wilderness). Then again, since this would go into a movie, you'd have to wonder what to cut. And haven't gotten around to that yet.
Whee, rambling. I think that's enough for now.

Due to my not having an external job, I've been conscripted into doing the gruntwork for the annual summer project (or at least I think it's annual): this year, it's dismantling our decrepit gazebo/toolshed in the near-backyard in order to refurbish the equally decrepit chickenhouse in the mid-backyard which holds lawnmowers - and after this, rakes and shovels and suchlike - rather than chickens; I'm supposed to spend six hours daily on this and other forms of yardwork. I was already looking forward to the fall, thanks.
Separately, the far-backyard is home to 'The Shack', one of Grandma's projects before she died. In the five years since, it's become just as dilapidated as the other two buildings - more so, actually, after a lightning strike hit a tree less than fifty feet away from it and blew out half the windows and the concrete floor.