I am now apparently writing while loops in LaTeX.

Oh god, what has this game done to me, other than render me incapable of typing HTML? (seriously, I just tried to italicize with \textit{})

I am also trying very, very hard to not die. Or kill myself in the process, which falls under "not dying".

Question for the hive mind: is there a comm on DW for crackfic ideas free for the taking?

See, I have this problem where I generate a lot of utterly cracktastic ideas that would be awesome to see done. From plots that are off-the-wall to crossovers that seem to be the result of throwing fandoms in a paper bag and drawing two out. And really, a comm should exist for this kind of thing. Either so people could go "hey, I'd totally write that!" or "oh god, that idea is hilarious". Because it'd be completely not serious and low-key.

Does anything like this exist already?

I've been watching the archives of Extra Credits on PATV (which are completely awesome and I need to link people to them at some point, because there are people I know in fandom who would eat these guys up because they get it). And, for the outro music, they often take tracks made from people on OCRemix, a group of various fan artist who remix video game music and share them. There was an epic rendition of the Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past theme, and, curious, I traced it back to the source.

Imagine my surprise when, upon visiting OCRemix's homepage, I saw the announcement that they'd just released their newest album: Wild Arms: ARMed and DANGerous.

Look, I can understand why some people are like "so what?" The first Wild ARMs game was released 15 years ago for the PS1, with little fanfare. The 3/4 overhead was reminiscent of FF6, and the 3D battles looked like bobbleheads fighting. It got completely overshadowed by the release of Final Fantasy VII in terms of very early PlayStation JRPGs.

Wild ARMs was the very first RPG I played through start to finish. I'd played around with my cousin's copy of one of the Legend of Zelda games, when I visited and he'd let me, but Wild ARMs? Wild ARMs was mine. I'd rented it on a whim in the summer of 1997 and was absolutely hooked. I'd played through Rudy's intro twice because I didn't understand at the time that I had to save, because there was no way I'd finish in one sitting. 10 hours of gameplay later, we had to return the disc, and the next day, I'd begged my mom for a trip to the game store and minutes later, I had my very own copy in my hands.

I never looked back.

Fourteen and a half years ago, I was introduced to a genre that changed my life. If not for Wild ARMs, I would never have been introduced to Square-Enix, Nippon Ichi, Bioware, or Atlus. I would never have dove headfirst into DnD, WoD, Shadowrun, FATE, or homebrew tabletops. I would never have jumped at the chance to join my university's live-action role-playing group, simply because they had the phrase "role-playing game" in the title.

I would not have the friends I have today, nor had the experiences that made me who I am. I would not be me.

Whenever an icon meme rolls around, people generally ask me "who's that in your default icon?" That would be Cecilia Adelhyde, the one female character in the party of three main characters of the first Wild ARMs, from the animated intro to the game. She's awesome. And she reminds me every day of who I was and who I came to be.

I'm listening to the OCRemix album as I write this, and I can't really put into words what I feel to hear Michiko Naruke's work remixed by fans who love her work as much as I do. It takes me back to a time when I was 12 years old, playing the game on the floor of my brother's bedroom, and not yet realizing at the time that'd I'd fallen absolutely, irrevocably in love with a medium and a genre like none other before.

It's the holidays, and to help with peoples' suffering over the new LJ...UI design decisions, I offer this:

Tea and Kittens

This has been a Public Service Announcement.

So I'm writing a bunch of characters from a whole lot of different backgrounds, and really, even I can only listen to so much Matthew Good (Band). So, rec me music? Don't really care what genre right now, since I really need an eclectic selection.

(Bonus points for something relating or reminding you of New York City.)

Grad school apps submitted: 1/4

Oh my god, I just applied to grad school.

Just so we're clear, internet denizens, I'm going to take this moment and just say that I'm probably going to go flat-out batshit insane for the next few weeks. See, I somehow thought it'd be a great idea to apply to grad school when I'm in the middle of writing a tenday. (I can't even blame the drugs for that brilliant decision, as I'm sick now and not 1.5 months ago. And for the record? Only I could get con-crud from a scientific conference. Why I thought grad students were healthier than gamers or sci-fi/fantasy fans I'll never know.)

And the first one is due in ten days, the next two 15 after that, and the last one 16 after that.

And then 20 days until the aformentioned tenday.

Oh my god, I am going to die.

(Washington D.C. was lovely, by the way. If only I hadn't had sucky internet so I could have actually done work instead of, uh, conferencing and goofing off. And sleeping.)

I've spent the last day or so looking over test prep materials for the GREs, which I take Tuesday. And, okay, the verbal reasoning section is the one that looks a bit tricky, because the examples they give are really fucking weird, but I'm fairly certain as long as I read the question carefully, I'll be fine (the example seems to be an exercise in writing the most opaque questions ever). The math I'm only worried about if I get stupidly cocky, because this is math I did in high school. And I hate that I can say that, because it sounds arrogant, but it's really kind of an odd idea that you can have a general test for grad school, that's supposed to be applicable to History students and to STEM students.

So the plan is to take off Tuesday, vote in the city election, drop my stuff off at the office on the way to the test center (because apparently they have absolutely draconian policies about what you're allowed to take into the building, so no smartphone for me to find the damn place), and then take a test. And hopefully not be too much of a cocky bastard but also get into my zen place for it.

Then I've got two days before I head out to DC for 5 five days for a neuroscience conference. Whoo. I'm hoping I'll get some amount of time to chill out while in DC. When I'm not frantically taking notes, revising application drafts, and writing the damn Guild game running at the end of January.

In other news, I've somehow got the xaos children and that old Iron Man/SG fusion fic starting to nibble on my brain again. Which I'd normally be all sorts of happy about, except of course it happens when I'm fucking hosed out of my mind.

Remember when I was utterly obsessed with Persona 4 (er, as opposed to right now, when I'm only somewhat obsessed) and most of the rest of you were completely baffled by this? They made an anime, and not only is Persona 4: the Animation airing in Japan this fall, but you can get it, subtitled in English, within 24 hours of original air time on Hulu. It's pretty much exactly like the game, minus dungeon crawling. It sends me right to my happy place, and I adore it madly.

In other Things What I Am Watching news, I finally had enough of people beating me over the head and started watching the Eleventh Doctor in Doctor Who and Last Exile (steampunk airships!).

I also seem to have mostly abandoned League of Legends and fallen headfirst in Supreme Commander: Forged Alliance. Not that this is a bad thing, considering it means LAN games with housemates as they teach me about flak and tac d.

It sounds like my old DnD 4E game is coming out of hiatus soon, which makes me a lot less pissed for accidentally forgetting to cancel my yearly subscription to DnD Insider. It's useful now! I'm pretty excited because this was the campaign that was a sequel (set 50 years later) to the first 3.5ed campaign I played way back, and we'd just hit Paragon tier when hiatus happened. So I'm looking forward to getting my DnD back on. (My character is the grandkid of my original character, and she's all kinds of cranky because of it. Such as being utterly convinced that her getting assigned to the party is some kind of punishment but no one is telling her what she did wrong.)

Some days, I really do love xkcd.

Oh wow, I apparently haven't been around for awhile. I had a birthday on Thursday. A minor mob of friends and I went to CBC to celebrate, which was great because I haven't seen a few of them in a while.

In a hilarious bit of "this is how my family operates", the card my parents sent me ahead of the gift they sent me came in a pink envelope. Now, I dislike the color, which means of course my mother loves threatening to buy me things in that color because I react by exaggerating my dislike ("If you're very good, I'll buy you this pink dress." "Well then, I'll just have to be a terrible human being!"), so of course I assume this is my mother giving me a hard time. As it turns out, she didn't realize until she was sending the card and had the "oh shit" moment, and apologized. I told her it was funnier my way and that clearly this was all according to her master plan. :)

Last night, Yarmond outdid himself in selections for this year's annual bad movie marathon for my birthday. The ground rules are a) I am not allowed to know the lineup beforehand, and b) I have to stay for every movie. This year had The Hero of Time, a fanmade film based on The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time; Airborne, starring Sean Bean (who of course dies), Torri Higginson, and some other people I don't remember; and Birdemic: Shock and Terror, with Rifftrax, which is the worst hippie ecological movie EVER. We wouldn't have survived the last one without Rifftrax. It has a 2 on IMDB. It was painful. Actually, that's probably an understatement.

I've also apparently found myself watching Warehouse 13 from the beginning. Why was I not watching this show sooner?

The BBC was filming in my lab, not even 10 feet from my office door.

Apparently, there will be a special on synthetic biology. No, I didn't know this would be happening when I came into work today.

My reaction: "Oh. Okay." And then made tea.

rydra_wong asked me about these icons:

( Answers below )

If you want to be memed, comment with "enthalpy" and I'll pick five of your icons for you to discuss.

Last weekend was the big moving weekend for us, so all that's left really is to clean the old apartment. And not a moment too soon as while we're almost set up at the new place, so we won't be having to haul furniture in a hurricane. We're supposed to get hit by Irene on Sunday. Note that this is following the earthquake on Tuesday. Yes, I live in Boston.

I'm really, really sorry about all those natural disasters I played with in SimCity and SimEarth as a kid. Is this the Sims getting revenge?

I think my plan is to go grab a few non-perishables from the grocery store tonight and see if I can't rescue my bike from the old apartment tomorrow. (It's handy living with someone from Florida right now! He tells me how to not be dumb.)

My tabletop campaign starts tomorrow. I'm a little nervous, despite the fact I've been prepping for it for the last 2 weeks. My current plan is to have the sandbox ready, let my players do whatever, and then figure out where I need to build sandcastles for them to storm. We'll see how this works.

Somewhat relatedly, since I'm running an ASoIaF campaign, that's where my headspace has been. And I have friends who encourage crazy ideas. And there was an image macro and now I found that I really want the IM/ASoIaF crossover where ( slight spoilers )

I am not alone in this. Internet, why does this not exist yet?

I am also in the process of moving. When did I get so much STUFF? I remember when I could fit my entire life into 5 rubbermaid containers, 2 suitcases, and a duffelbag. Then again, that was 7 (!!) years ago, and I lacked critical possessions. Like a bed.

I seem to be battling insomnia again. I do not remember the last time I got a solid 8 hours of sleep. The world is starting to go kinda fuzzy at the edges, and yet, here I am. I do not know why this keeps happening. I thought I was done with this ridiculousness after I graduated. SOMETIMES, I'M WRONG.

So, last post I mentioned that friends were trying to rope me into running a tabletop. Probably in no small part of the aformentioned sleep-deprivation, they succeeded. Now I find myself trying to cram the rules for a system I've never used before (nor have my players) into my head before the first session in less than two weeks. Apparently, there's a d6-based A Song of Ice and Fire roleplaying game. Fascinating!

Yes, I'm running a ASoIaF campaign. It takes place "20 minutes post A Dance with Dragons", meaning news of the events of the later chapters hasn't entirely propagated nor is the status of the later chapters in stasis. The premise is ( minor spoilers for ADwD )

In further evidence that my life revolves around gaming, when I've not been focused on that, I've been working on the IAP tenday I'm supposedly running. I am trying not to let panic and despair set in due to the realization that it might be inevitable that Synchronicity gets compared to HP: Year 7. Because there are fundamental differences in the type of games that mean that Synch really can't live up to Year 7. Mainly that Year 7 had this established world so didn't have to do as much world-building to establish with players what to expect. That and it's kinda wish-fulfillment: seriously, you got to pretend you were a Hogwarts student. How many years have some people been waiting for that? Meanwhile, Synch's a Guild original, and I don't know if we're going to get that level of immersion and favor. I don't know. It's kind of needless panic, but in the dark hours of the night, it eats at me, because I want to run the best game possible.

Finished reading A Dance with Dragons. Spoiler-free reactions:
:)
;_;
>.<
:D
;_;
-.-
>.<
D:

Which I think sums it up. Although now I have no more A Song of Ice and Fire books to read. (Yes, I know I am a summer child, who has never known the harsh winter of no books.) I mean, I definitely have my favorite characters who I hope survive this series, but well, I'm pretty sure I have an entirely different relationship to this series than people who have been reading for years, simply because I had no wait beyond a few hours between A Feast for Crows and DwD. I've confirmed this with a friend, but that just means my sample size is one.

I will probably be making icons. *shifty look* In the meantime, Rasler is amusingly appropriate.

It's been a long time since I was able to power through a few thousand pages of novels in a short period of time. It's kind of amazing how much I missed that. I should go find a new thing to read.

Now the question is how many thinly-veiled retools of characters from ASoIaF show up in this tenday I'm writing. (And see if I get myself roped into running a tabletop. HALP.)

I noticed that Bahamut was behaving oddly sluggish when using Firefox yesterday morning. I didn't deal with it then, figuring virus scan was running in the background, so left for work. When I came home, I noticed that it was still laggy, and then checked the RAM usage, which was logged in at just under "slightly ridiculous". Which, okay, it's Firefox 3.6.xx, which we all know leaks RAM like the Titanic. So I restart the program and Chrome, and that makes it somewhat better.

Then I start trying to play League of Legends, and holy hell, thank god that was a bot game because I was getting maybe 10 seconds of play every 30. It was choking on the game that much. (It says something about the quality of the bots that despite this, I was STILL winning against it, with my only deaths being accidental tower-dives. Or, you know, that it's because I was playing Teemo, and Teemo is awesome. This led to some amusing moments of "ultranos has killed an enemy!" "I did? When?! HOW?!") I closed just about every other program in the hopes that it was a memory leak somewhere, but no such luck. So, reboot time.

Apparently, that was my first mistake. (My zeroth mistake was mentioning my computer was acting strangely over Teamspeak with DMark, which means he thought about it, which means problems were going to start occurring.)

Long story short, my computer is over, the 1TB HD with the OS has a bad sector and needs to be RMAed because it's still in warranty (thanks, Seagate!), and all my data has to be transferred off of it before I send it in. Most of my critical data is stored in multiple places, so the only thing I'm grumpy about with regards to that is trying to figure out how to rescue my saved games (like the 90-hour unfinished game of DA:O...). I might also take the time to grab an SSD off Newegg and install the OS on that. Mostly, though, this is just a pain in the ass that I don't really want to deal with, but have to, because I do love Bahamut, even when it is a problem child.

It could also be that the universe is telling me to spend the weekend finishing A Dance with Dragons, as I'm 40% of the way through it, and it is currently breaking my heart. SO GOOD. Even if the book ended where I'm at right now, I'd be happy. Well, joining the fandom in crying for more, but happy. (Damn, with Bahamut down, it'll be harder to make the ASoIaF icon set I was planning. Oh well.)

Yes, I'm alive. To some definition of "alive". (A week of 6 or less hours of sleep per night is starting to catch up with me.) I spent last weekend in Milwaukee with my parents, since that's probably the last chance I'm going to get to be in that city until next year (I'm not currently planning on flying into Milwaukee for Christmas and/or New Years). Plus, you know, seeing my folks.

Problem is that I did this without taking any vacation days, so it went "get into work early, work, go to airport for 5pm flight" and then "get up early, go to airport for 7:45am flight (and make it with 3 minutes to spare because of hour-long TSA line), get into work by 11:30, work full day". Yes, sometimes, I do wonder if I was dropped on the head as a child.

One thing the flights were good for is chewing through A Song of Ice and Fire, because I'm impatient and can't wait until next year for s2 of Game of Thrones. If the little tick marks on the progress bar in the Kindle omnibus of the first 4 books mean anything, I'm about 75% through A Storm of Swords. I've just been chewing through it, after I finished the nonfiction book I'd been reading.

(Said nonfiction book is For Us Surrender is Out of the Question: A Story from Burma's Never-Ending War by Mac McClelland, who's also the human-rights reporter over at Mother Jones. It's about McClelland's time as a young twentysomething when she went to a Burmese refugee camp in Thailand for six weeks and got a hell of an education. In between her own story, which is written in the wry kind of "god, I was an idiot" voice at some points, are the stories of the people she met, which are heartbreaking and rage-inducing for their sakes. It's not an easy book, but I do recommend it.)

In non-media consumption news, I did get myself a Google+ account (it helps having friends at Google). Yes, this still means I do not have a Facebook, and I'm perfectly alright with that. I kinda like it so far. The interface design does not make me want to claw my eyes out, the asynchronous circles are nice and remind me of DW, and the multi-way video chat is not only neat, but nicely integrated into the entire thing.

1. On Saturday, my lab had it's annual BBQ, which was potluck style, so there was entirely too much food. This was exacerbated in that it was actually 2 labs, so everyone brought lots of food. I contributed to this excess when it looked like not many people were bringing things to put on the grill, so volunteered to bring chicken. And since I'm me, I hit up McKinnon's with $15. Which, because it's McKinnon's, netted me 40+ chicken wings and drumsticks. Even more awesomely, the recipe I got from Dad was a huge hit, not only with the lab, but with the other party later on Saturday night I dumped a tray of chicken on. Huzzah for simple yet tasty dishes!

2. My housing situation is...complex. Long story short, it feels like our landlord pulled some shenanigans, and we don't feel like playing the game anymore, so we're taking our money and toys and going elsewhere. Which means I have to pack up all my stuff soon. (When did I acquire so much stuff? Why?) I need to remember to go through all my old clothing and set aside all the ones I haven't worn since freshman year for charity.

3. I drank the Kool-Aid and got a pair of Vibram FiveFingers last Monday. I think I'm in love. My knees haven't hurt all week.

4. I might do a longer post on my feelings about the first season of Game of Thrones, but suffice it to say that after the season finale last night, my thought process went:
"Holy crap...wait, SPRING 2012?! ... ...TO THE KINDLE-MOBILE!"
Which means I'm possibly reading two highly-depressing books at the same time.

5. I think it's official that I'm addicted to League of Legends. I have over 100 games I've paid for on Steam alone, and all I want to do is play the Free-to-Play RTS. *facepalm*

6. Typing this up has been difficult due to the fact that I'm talented and nearly sliced off the tip of my left thumb with a chef's knife while prepping dinner. Cut through about 1.5mm of flesh, thus cutting halfway through the tip of the nail. (I've managed to cut the nail worse with a set of nail clippers) So now the thumb is wrapped up in gauze and athletic tape to the first joint. Like I said, I'm talented.