Collaborative Writing and Current Projects

Hey I like writing, and you sure might too.  So would you like to write stuff together?  Come on, it'd be fun!

Not Sure I Care To Title This

In all the mixy-moshy pamtan of thoughts I have, interesting ones emerge from time to time.  I like interesting, because it's... broad.  Something can be interestingly bad, or interestingly different.  "Interesting" I suppose is more like a description of the noun's relationship to the perspective.  Anyways that wasn't what I was getting at.

"Why it sucks to be a white male" seems like an Onion article, or something of the like.  Colbert did it in an article for... I don't remember.  It sounds like the beginning of a joke, mostly because it is.  But why can it only be a joke?  As I think about it, I don't exactly enjoy being villain-ized for my race and gender.  To which one would say "Doesn't feel good, does it?"  I never said it did.  I didn't oppress anyone, I'm not out there harassing people.  I get sexually harassed, but it's supposed to be okay because I'm a guy?  Oh and here's a more fun thought before this spirals.  White guys are the bad guy like a huge amount of the time in stories and history.  No one else likes to be judged for the actions of a few bad people who share basic human characteristics with you, I don't either.  I guess I'm just trying to say that if you assume someone is sexist or racist, you're perpetuating hate too.

But back to happy thoughts of ponies in fields, or whatever. That was just a mini-rant not really worth having that I needed to get out of my system.

Trot On,
Alturiigo

Laerawyn, the Wandering Minstrel

Oh so I just remembered about my main from Lord of The Rings Online, and how much I love her as a character.  When I decided to try the game and make a character, I wanted to work with something I hadn't in a long time, and also rarely use.  So I used what I figured would resemble this game's bard class.  So I did, and the simple character I can up with was instant fun.

Laerawyn is a free-spirited bard who travels the lands of Middle-Earth, playing her harp and stringing sublime tales of the resilience of hope.  She wanders the lands with her feet bare, loving the feeling of the earth beneath her feet.  She can be a bit withdrawn and somber, but deep within she believes in the good of the world and in Eru's Children.

Yeah!

A z10 Trailer? A Video Post(or Attempt)

I enjoy talking as well as typing, so here's a vid-post for z10: Apocalypse - The StoneBridge Residents... and suddenly it feels waaay to long of a title.  Anyhoo.

Nevermind.  Fail. So here's a link for it on YouTube instead - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZf8alNxiq8&feature=youtu.be

SQUEEE! And WereGeek

So I stumbled upon WereGeek, an amazing web-comic, through G+.  Major squees, lots of laughs, and absolutely stellar nerd/geek references, especially for us pen and paper gamers.  And the major systems they touch on... I've played almost all of 'em! So it's super super awesome for me! GAH!

This unfortunately also makes me realize that my pen and paper life has been pretty much memories for the last few years, and it saddens me a little that something I love so much has fallen out of my life.  So I gotta make one of my initiatives to get it back!  So I gotta get the StoneBridge Residents up and running as a campaign, I need to get my players started, and I suppose I gotta make core play packets(mini-rulebooks).

Woop wow actually just got sidetracked starting that so I should wrap this up.

Pen and Paper RPG's, in fact a lot of RPG's in the non-video mediums(there's a lot out there), are really great ways to create stories with your friends and are a really fun way to hang out.  Maybe next time you're hanging out with some friends, start a game where you have to start making up some kind of story.  Sentence by sentence, maybe by paragraphs.  Whatever, but it might be fun if you give it a shot.  So get your friends together and make a story!

Trot On Kindly,
Alturiigo

Being Sick, Plans, All That Jazz

So I'm back after spending a few days severely under the weather.  Okay, so I suppose literally I spend most of my time "under" the weather... so yeah. I was sick as all hay.  Better?  Sure.  Anyways, for anyone who doesn't know, I have CVS(Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome), and it's kinda like migraines for your stomach.

Basically, I experience horrible nausea which comes with anxiety at no extra charge.  Episodes can last as short as 4 to 6 hours, though most of the time they tend to fall in the range of 8 to 16 hours.  If an episode reaches 48 hours, it's starting to get out of hand and my dehydration requires medical attention(like a hospital).  There isn't really any treatment of medicine for this, just treatment for the symptoms.  I was born with it, and as far as all signs can suggest, I will die with it.  Anyhoo.

I'm thinking on starting to work a little on the StoneBridge Residents(working title for reference), which is the flavor/setting/n'such for z10 Apocalypse, the "zombie" variant of the d10 Engine I've been working on for a few years.
Here's a terrible picture of a cover draft -

So yeah, and I should be back again for a while... I hope anyways.

Kindness and Motivation to Be "Good"

So, while thinking about motivation and intent, as I seem to touch on regularly, I considered its implications for kindness.  Another aspect I'm going to throw into this is the all-too-applicable ulterior motive.  So why should we be nice?

It's hard to not sound pretentious for this discussion, so... let's just go with it.  Let's go ahead and say that you should be good for goodness sake(too soon?).  Let's rearrange the words and add an article with the beauty of language to get "be good for the sake of goodness".  This still turns out to be a pretty vague statement as far as how to think about goodness, but I think we're on the right track.

Let's look at ulterior motives as reasons other than the sake of goodness to perform such an act(or inaction). One might do something in the hopes of causing someone else to consider them of greater value in some way, or to establish a credit with said party. Please note that these are not the only two forms of ulterior motives.  There is also doing nice things in the idea that this will increase your "good" levels.

This is the silliest thing to pick a fight with, so I'm going to.  Let's approach this from the perspective that the last idea is a self-defeating concept.  It's the thought that counts... but we should all be able to agree that this is too vague of a concept.  There are times that I feel like I do nice things out of spite, anger, or frustration.  This causes me to evaluate why I do nice things, so I decide it's because even though the end result may anger or frustrate me, I have some human impulse to do something nice.

Now to make sense of all the ideas I threw out there.
Wanting to be good is a human behavior, and I'd like to argue that ideas like religion and government are stemmed from this.  If you perform goodness to be gooder, you're doing it wrong.  Decide that you want to do goodness because you want to do goodness, and hold yourself accountable for your own awesome.

I'd like to finish by saying -  sure, being gooder isn't a bad thing to strive for.  Just do it because you want to, not because you think you should.  Though you should.

The Service Industry

I currently work as a bartender, and have worked as a delivery driver for a good length of time on previous time spans.  Both of these jobs/professions share something in common; the concept of tipping.  As I get into this topic, it's mostly focused on the food service industry, though not so as much the "fast-food" industry.

Working in a tip-based position(to say, one which you do not make "minimum wage"), your income is a rather variable amount.  The base income, is not however.  It is often $5 less than the national minimum wage for other professions, and often has a much different model for staffing and scheduling than other business models.  This has benefits, but there are considerable drawbacks as well.

When going out to eat at a restaurant where a tip is considered customary, overhead cost of food production is reduced due to reduced wage.  This is to say that in some ways, the cost of the food includes very little cost towards the service given.  If said service was poor, then it has a low worth, meaning a smaller tip.  This allows the guest to decide the value of the service, instead of paying a flat amount(accounted for by increased cost of food).  An obvious benefit is the encouragement of the wait-staff to give better service.  This is not the case one-hundred percent of the time.

I can personally say that on many occasions, I have given a guest or guests service that they have been pleased with, and seem to enjoy the interaction I shared with them.  They will often return, being familiar with the experience and being pleased with it.  However, it is often enough that I receive no tip for the service I have provided.  I do my best not to personally condemn people for not doing so, but it is frustrating none-the-less.  Some people may not know that the person receives less than minimum wage, not to mention the job market and economy.

Here's the thing.  People working in the service industry can often be faulted for not being as friendly as they should.  I'm not trying to say that we in the industry are without blame.  That being said, I do my best to be respectful as I deal with others, and from what I've experienced this often creates a respectful interaction.  This still requires both parties to participate in respect and understanding.

So this is what I'm getting at:  Please remember that the human being taking your order(whether at a table or on the phone) wants to be treated with respect, just like you do.  The standard tip rate is considered respectful, because it pushes the wage for the person to THE NATIONAL MINIMUM WAGE(what we seem to have decided as a country is the LOWEST amount a person should work for).  I can't disagree with the ability to tip less for poor service, that only seems reasonable if good service can be rewarded in the complimentary fashion.

I'll wrap this up now.  People... please think about the messages your actions and behaviors say to the people you interact with.  Anyone can be the first person to give respect, don't be afraid to try.  We're all human - remember that.

Love and Tolerate Everypony,
Alturiigo

Interests, Review, and Who I Am?

I had this thought where I was like, "Hey, maybe I should give a rundown about me to give an idea of what I'm about".  So I threw together a video to do such a thing, and when I finished I was interested by the result.

The video ended up feeling pretty similar to the Checkin' It Out series(starting Saturday!), so in other words to describe myself, I talked about various media and games that I liked and shared why I like them.  This isn't exactly a self-description, but that was my intention(to describe myself).  So why does this interest me?

It kinda seems to say that I have some level of notion that part of what makes you who you are is the things you like and such.  There's a lot of things that make a person who they are, more than just what they like.  Maybe you have some thoughts yourself on the matter, if so, let me know!  Leave a comment and join the discussion!(the imaginary one where people care what I talk about)

That's about it for now, back to doing my thing
-Alturiigo

Structure and Such

As I mentioned in my last post(pretty sure anyways), I'm planning on doing a Thoughts and Questions vlog every Wednesday and a Checkin' It Out every Saturday.  While none of what I'm doing is necessary in any real way, it's important that I give myself deadlines and structure.  I've brought up my aimless ambition, and giving myself guidelines and trying to force a feeling of necessity and responsibility are a couple things that help me actually accomplish what I set out to do.

On a side note, the last TnQ post was earlier today(Thursday) which meant it was late.  But I also had to work for a little over 15 hours yesterday so yeah.  Anyhoo, I'm sure there are things I need to work on and attend to, so catch ya 'round every-pony.

-Alturiigo

p.s. the ice cream truck is driving past right meow, and this amuses me

Back in Action

Had a bit of a vacation of sorts, helped some excellent friends celebrate their wedding.  Now is the hard part, pulling my momentum and drive back to my current projects.  That being said, another Thoughts and Questions video will be up Thursday, and on Saturday I will begin the Checkin' It Out "review" series.

Congratulations to Tim and Olivia Farmer on their beautiful wedding, which was also amazing being a part of(not apart of... language).  I took the Amtrak for the trip, and it was my first time riding on a train.  I haven't traveled much in my 25 years, so I'm more inclined these days to appreciate as much as I can when I do.  It was a neat experience, and to be honest I plan on doing it again sometime, maybe travelling some place across the country.

I guess sometimes I have a false nostalgia, for times before I was born.  Trains represent a lot of time periods, so it felt a little like hearkening back.  Also, as our technologies progress, a lot of things are being phased out.  There can be fault found in holding on to things for too long, but it still saddens me.  This also has a place in my love-hate relationship with the internet and modern technology.  But that's a rant I'll avoid.

Stay Kind, Strong and Generous,
Alturiigo

A New Character

The character I'll be creating as/to write this is Leah Moruul, sister to Lynn Moruul.  But first, I'd like to start with a brief explanation for context.

Lynn Moruul has existed in my head canon as a good evil character for a few years now, and often casts as the skilled assassin in game settings.  In Rock Band, she was the bassist.  I started a second version of the band Love Robot(originally my lil sister and I with my brother-in-law), but with my cousin and friend.  Lynn was still in the band, but now her sister Leah played lead guitar.  And that was the birth of Leah Moruul.

I dabbled once with the character, supposing that in the Visceroth Cluster setting she might be a nanite user(tech-magic).  I'm not sure really though where to go with her.  So maybe I should think about who she is as a character.
Okay. Her older sister is a well-renowned assassin(as much as an assassin can be).  Looking up Lynn's info, I can see they grew up on Selenar, living in the capital city of Ankus.  It also tells me that Lynn is skilled at espionage and infiltration.  Let's suppose that Leah wanted to do her own thing.

Alright, when Leah was 17-19(I'll decide later), she boarded a ship and made her way to Baila, the jungle planet known for its excellent medical schools and hospitals, also home to the Narina species.  Nanite technology requires expensive cybernetics.  As a field medic in a government position such as a Defense Force Soldier or EMT would have more direct access to financial support.  I like EMT's, I think they do great things, so I'm going to develop her with that in mind as her trade as I progress her through her personal timeline.

Such a field requires various skills, from medical knowledge to being adaptable in stressful situations.  A good sense of perception is required to assess situations, and hey as it turns out, Perception is a Primary Attribute for Nanite-Users.  Anyhoo.  More thoughts about who she is and might be come up.  She's probably good in clutch situations(yes d10 has a Talent for that).

Is she tough and hardy, or nimble and quick?  Maybe neither?  Maybe she really is the "little" sister, and her intelligence and perception have been the basis of her success.  I like that.  Maybe she's a bit of an organizer, and in that way a strategist as well.  That would mean she could potentially have a leadership role of some level.

Alright, I'll cut it and sum it up here.  Leah Moruul is in her mid-to-late 20's, a petite woman who is a senior EMT for Miamar City(the capital city).  She is a generally friendly person who enjoys working with people, to the contrast of her older sister Lynn.  She first started as an EMT when she was 19, after she had moved to the city of Chioth on Baila.  Since then she has made a name for herself and established a solid reputation in her field as someone who works well in high-stress situations.  Even when training and going through schooling she excelled, demonstrating her academic prowess.  She continues to love learning, as well as reading, and often reads old Narina tales.

Maybe next for is an aesthetic draft, but I'm spent for now.

Peace peace,
Alturiigo

Ha, an Example... kinda

So again on the topic of character design, specifically "aesthetic persona", I'd like to use a doodle as a reference/example/whatever

I've spent a lot of time working with these characters and developing their aesthetics, so it was really fun for me to draw them all.  I also enjoyed working in this style, and doodles like this help me keep going when I find my well of creativity less... bubbling?

And that's just Bec. Anyhoo, I have other things to attend to.

Trot On Friends,

Alturiigo

*Insert Sound of Exasperation*

My brain seems to be in a more dormant state today, and I can't seem to generate productive thought.  And that's probably one of the biggest things that slows down my creative process.  I often find that I will create in bursts, followed by being unable to progress because my brain just wants to do something else.
Anyways.

Also, I spent the first three hours of my birthday hanging out with people I didn't even know, and it was a pretty good time.  Sometimes friends are... puzzled by what appears to be naivety, or maybe blind optimism.  But people are people, and sometimes you just have to take a chance and hope for the best.

EEEEEEE PONIES!!! Sorry, had to get that out.  Listening to the "Babs Seed" song from Season 3, it's way too catchy and fun.  MLP:FiM has the ability to almost always put a smile on my face. And that kinda what it's about, making people happy.  And I'll start a sentence with a freakin' conjunction if I want.