starla

It's Shunya Yamashita art as we discussed in IRC <3

Who is this guy? Some noob? Birthday wishes, etc XD

Happy birthday to some seriously attractive people.

After a month of being lazy, I have finally updated the thread and my sig to reflect the upcoming compo.

So long, ocremix! We put our future in your A.S.S.. (what)

Believe me, I know that - it's just kinda tough trying to explain when someone asks what music I like.. i'll generally say techno to shut em up. So when's the next one?

Sweet deal, downloaded edit: kidney thieves! did we both just fall out of the same undaground tree or what broseff

Listening now, so far so good! edit: i LOVE god lives underwater <3 u

So one time I was tanking violet hold, and this person starts messaging me asking if he can join our guild. I let him know that the guild is more for people from this community, and beyond that, he was a low level character. I was polite and let him know that once he was max level, if he were still around and had the right spec and itemization on his gear (learned his class essentially), i'd think about inviting him to a group, and if he performed well and got along with everyone, then I'd think about a guild invite. This is a pretty standard response, "if you prove yourself then you gan get a ginvite" right? The guy got all flustered and started flirting, and saying silly things like "Will you be my lady Sylvanas?" Yeah. So I told the guy I was married. I asked his age and he said he was 12 :3 He was very persistent and REALLY wanted to be in a guild, before talking to anyone in it or knowing what it was about. I doubt he had the patience to actually level to 80. I had an experience with another 12 year old kid in an endgame raid. I was doing Eye of Eternity (back when it was serious business) with a serious business guild and a serious business raid leader. This 12 year old kid is mouthing off in vent before we begin, keeps getting kicked and reinvited (obviously they were 'abusing' him a little for being annoying) -- but when we got into actually raiding, he did fine and shut up. This kid also had an extremely foul mouth, probably to impress all the people he was with. Although I have been known to curse on occasion on vent, it still concerned me that he was mouthing off like this. The honest truth is that if he did not have a microphone, I wouldn't have been able to tell him from anyone of any other age, since he actually performed well. Generally you won't see a lot of kids with level 80 characters. It does require a good amount of time to get a character to max level, and a good sized portion of the people you see playing are recently unemployed responsible adults. At low levels however, you encounter people that have absolutely no idea how to play and don't really care that groups require teamwork, run off and do whatever they want, take items that aren't any good for their class, and will not listen when you give them advice. The general response is always "they must be a 12 year old kid." Sure, there must be adults out there that are stubborn and don't listen - but I'm convinced as well that many of the low level characters that are difficult to play alongside are in fact, children. They want to play the game with a couple of buddies but aren't serious, and don't realize that within groups, communication can be important, especially if you've never done that specific instance or raid before. tl;dr - I agree on the sentiment that the more difficult and time consuming a game becomes, the more it will weed out people with short attention spans, including children. There are absolutely some end-game, they are few and far between, but it is far more common to see a 12 year old "griefing" others in a game that you can pick up easily and play with little to no time investment necessary. If they have the patience to do well, they won't bother anybody and can be a pleasure to play with.

Since coming back from magfest, the weather has been miserable and I haven't been out walking and exercising like I used to. Personally my plan is to do cardio every other day, and weights additionally every 3 days (so day 1 cardio and weights, day 2 rest, day 3 cardio, day 4 rest, day 5 cardio and weights, repeat.) My cardio normally consists of the eliptical, (this is low impact on knees, i have bad knees) ~40 minute of a pace that 'makes it difficult to carry a normal conversation.' Not too fast, but enough to really start getting things going. I do some free weights: laying on my back, holding my arms out to my sides with 15lb weights in each hand, then bringing them up above in front of my chest, keeping my arms straight. Repeat with the arms in a starting position above the head, bringing above the chest. We also have some press machines at the gym. I do a couple reps of 10 depending on the energy I have that day, I usually start with stretches then weights then cardio, since the cardio wears me out the most I prefer to do that last. Not everyone is like that though. Some days if I don't feel like going out, I'll opt for an aerobics video. do NOT discount these - i have surprisingly been extremely exhausted by doing the simplest of routines. I've been losing steady weight with a moderate diet. I won't be doing any 'crash' things, just eat healthy and don't overeat. Lots of fiber and proteins (chicken and fish are great) and healthy carbs (like broccoli, spinach, string beans) and avoid sugars late in the day. I will have sugary cereals in the morning because they give me an extra boost of energy that i do plan on using. Some days I'll prefer to have a protein shake for breakfast, I like to mix a banana in there sometimes as well. I have also switched to fat free milk, and no longer drink sodas. I will drink juice mixed with club soda or seltzer water. My main problem is I have a love affair with food; even healthy food I will tend to overeat. For me, my key is not to go to any extreme, because I will start to feel pressured and even more hungry than usual if I know I'm limiting myself. Slow and steady is the way to go. One thing that helps some people as well is keeping a log of the food you eat, and trying to maintain a normal schedule. This can help you realize if you are a bad snacker. One diet I tried suggested eating 4 small meals a day, every 4 hours. This worked surprsingly well for me, not just because of the 'eating less, more often' thing, but also because my body really responded to eating on a set schedule. Anyway I've lost 3 pounds since the start of the year, my goal is 25. I'll try to keep you guys updated, share any secrets you might know!

Very sexy indeed! Happy birthday!

I see a bunch of weird characters on a white background. Also some images.

<3 you tons

Happy birthday!

Yikes, sorry to hear that, bro. Hope to see you next week.

This is exactly how I feel.

What I'm thinking of doing when figuring out rides and cars, is having everyone fill out a short survey of if they're ok with gambling, nudity, drinking, or chilling out and playing video games, and split up the rides according to that. I don't think it's too necessary to discuss what we want to/don't want to do as far as those things go in the thread since it seems to be flamebait.

Well said. I'm very much looking forward to seeing the people I love. Whether or not they get along is up to them, but I love all of them. <3

There will be designated times for us to meet up at Jade and Blind's home. What you choose to do with the rest of your time is up to you. You two are feeding off eachother, be patient and kind. This is going to be a great meetup, and I don't want anyone to have any hard feelings toward anyone else there.

Also to address the under 21 crowd: Jade says she can likely house them, if there end up being a larger group then we can get them a hotel room. As long as they respect the fact that they cannot come to room parties with alcohol, we won't have any trouble. It is the law, and it would suck to get busted. If if turns out only a couple come, they can stay with Jade and Blind, and chill out with them - that way they don't have to walk through the casinos at all. Once we have a more final headcount, it'll be much easier to determine what to do with 'em If one of the under-21's has a car, they can transport them and then Jade won't have to get a rental either. There's a lot that we don't know yet. I love the idea of having something for us west-coasters besides a one-night meetup at Will's. This does sound like it's getting bigger and more planning will need to be done to make sure everyone is accomodated. For now don't worry about it, we'll figure it out - we have plenty of time between now and August.

There are pretty clearly people that want to do some things, and others that want to do other things. This is absolutely fine. I propose we have a schedule. There will be at least 30 people it seems, what we may want to do is set certain times for dinners and shows and meeting up, but leave the rest up to us. Just like Magfest, we're not obligated to be with the same people the entire time. Many people have not been to Vegas before and want to experience more extravagant things that may not be affordable for others. Others will want to get wasted and wander around. Some others may just be interested in seeing shows, and exploring the city. And others yet may want to spend a good amount of time playing poker. Travelling in smaller groups to do the things you want to do, then meeting up altogether will be wiser than trying to do everything together with 30 people. Once we have a final count of people (I don't expect that until much later) we can split up rides, and make up a basic and flexible schedule.

I'm definitely going. I can easily make both this and the Vegas trip since im driving there, then fly out and have a summer east coast trip a month later. I'd much rather do a nerd music festival than otakon since that's an anime con and really has little to no interest to me. I hope MC Chris comes again, he was great.

I like this idea, if you can keep the under 21 crowd with you, and if you all can fit in 1 car, that'll make the trip pretty smooth since you'll have transportation.

I agree on the 21+ thing. There's just not much to do since you have to be 21 to gamble in that state anyway. I guess if a group of minors wanted to come, they could get their own hotel room and hang out at the huge Dave & Busters, but they'd have to come with the understanding that they would be excluded from many activities. When we went to Ashley and Justin's wedding, we all stayed at the Imperial Palace. It's right in the middle of the strip so it's well within walking distance of many of the hotels and food, and we paid $20/night. The rooms weren't that large or great but we certainly got what we paid for. I vote for IP again simply because it was super affordable. Of course if people want to stay across the street in a more luxurious hotel like the Bellagio or Cesar's Palace, it's still very close (literally across the street). Bally's and Flamingo are also very close. I like the idea of being able to plan out exactly who is coming and group them up with people who have cars, that way no one is excluded from any activities - which is unavoidable at Mag.

Rama and I are definitely coming! I'll likely drive this time so I may be able to give some of my norcal bretheren a ride. I know Arek is claiming a spot