A geeky love story

I just had to share this here:

 

A nice little story about a chance meeting and the love that came from it. Love can over come any boundary, if you only give it a chance. No one said it will be easy though, but that it will be worth it. If you have that person in your life, you hold on. And if you don't have that person, well you just need to wait. Don't go looking for your soul mate, or your other half. I didn't but I found her. It's something that you find while being with someone.

Anyway, just wanted to share that. Enjoy!

Today was a good day

Sometimes, all it takes is one day to just make your month.

Still, no word on a job yet. But I did get my unemployment extended so that was great! I was biting my nails and counting pennies up until this point. Now I have some, not a lot of breathing room. Still looking for a job though. I had a hard time sleeping the last few nights stressing over it. I know I should have applied but the though of working at the local call center is really freaking me out. Not that will stop looking for work, just that I can relax a bit and get some sleep at night.

On top of that, I did my taxes and will be getting money back. Meaning... I WILL BUY A KINDLE FIRE!!! MAW HAH HAH!

Finally, amazon will stop sending me all those emails about how amazing it is. I will just be able to have one, for myself. Oh happy day.

Might go pick it up tomorrow.

Need For Speed Underground

Been playing a lot of Need for Speed Underground. I just picked up a new copy as I was feeling a bit nostalgic. Learned that there was a widescreen workaround so now my game is running at 1680x1050 and it's beautiful. Well, for a 10 year old video game anyway. I just got my 2002 Celica GT-S, and have been tweaking it out. I love that car. Maybe because I own one...

As for City of Heroes, I've been trying to take a break from it. It pulls me back in to make a costume now and again. Also many of my friends have been away so that takes me away from the game as well.

A new outfit I've been working on for my GF's OC character from CoH

Well, not much really going on besides that. But things are looking up. And that's always welcome.

Meet the Cast: Ms. Metropolis!

Welcome to the second installment of Meet the Cast. Today, we will talk about a most unlikely idea that turned into my favorite character in City of Heroes.

Meet Ms. Metropolis!

Defender of Paragon

IC info:

One of many various outfits

Ms. Metropolis is one of the Nuclear 90; 90 children from around the world all born in one year with an unusual mutation that gives them natural magnetic nuclear fusion reactors for hearts, and the ability to channel energy from their internal reactor for a variety of super powers.

Like many of the Nuclear 90, Ms. Metropolis uses her powers for the betterment of mankind as a hero. She focuses the energy generated from her heart  to increase her physical strength and toughness, able to stand up to even the mightiest of foes, take hits that would knock a building down and even lift up a battle tank with ease.

Rebecca ready for a night of gaming...

Yet, with all her strength, Ms. Metropolis doesn't let it get to her head. She has yet to kill a single person, often pulling punches and stopping herself before any real harm is done. It's said that she has never gone into any combat using all of her ability, instead letting her foe make the first move in terms of escalation.

Ms. Metropolis projects herself as happy and carefree. She is often found in Pocket D, slurping down a large milkshake (She loves them all!) or in Atlas Park, helping new heroes find their feet. In truth, Ms. Metropolis is burdened by the responsibility of protecting the city and it's citizens.

...Or a night out on the town.

Ms. Metropolis's secret identity is Rebecca Sweets. Rebecca studies Journalism at Paragon University. While Ms. Metropolis is a bright and outgoing type, Rebecca keeps to herself, and enjoys video games, anime and role playing games. The real person under both facades is a mix of both. A kind-spirited, good-hearted person who is burdened with having to balance her hero life, and the life of a 20 year old.... Who also enjoys a good role playing game time to time.


OOC Information:

I've been accused of taking the name from Superman. While the name is similar to the fictional city, I had the name before the character was created.

Ms. Metropolis started off very differently then what you see here. She was originally one half of a super team from the 1920's in Chicago and was a magic defender. (The other half being Lady Spectacle, who was a scrapper) Long story short, they were two statues, who thought they were the real heroes from the 1920's. The RP was fun but didn't last long so I shelved both heroes.

Ms. Metropolis in Champions Online

After a bit of playing, I decided I wanted to create a 'classic' and iconic hero in City of Heroes. Up until then, most of my heroes were more the dark heroes. So, turning to the most iconic hero that I knew (Superman) and using others as well (Wonder Woman) I created a hero in that same vein. Taking the name from my old hero, Ms. Metropolis was created.

I had never played a tank before. I mostly stuck to scrappers and blasters. It was really a learning curve with her but I started to really enjoy her staying power in a fight. I loved being able to charge into a group and not really have to worry about being healed. She is a blast to play, even today.


I created Metro before they release the Willpower set. If it had been out when I made her, she would have been a willpower/super strength tanker. But I'm happy with the set she is today. Metro turned out to be my second and last level 50 toon, and the first one to reach +1. I enjoy running the end game content with her but sadly I have no idea what I'm doing for them. And no body wants to have a noob tanker :-D

Ms. Metropolis is my only character that was also created successfully in Cryptic's second MMO, Champions Online. I say successfully because while I tried in attempt to recreate several heroes from City of Heroes in Champions Online but they did not translate well. (Paralaxis was a mess in Champions) Because of this, her story also includes the role play she had in Champions online, but without all the copy-written stuff from the Champions universe.

This was the most enjoyable aspect of CO for me. Able to lift up cars and tanks.

Ms. Metropolis is also the first character I have that has had art done of her. My last birthday, my girlfriend surprised me with an amazing set of pictures she had commissioned for me, after a lengthy email scavenger hunt. She picked Metro's Classic hero outfit. Speaking of, Metro has over 45 different outfits as of this writing. Of course she doesn't have all of them at once, I just have them saved in the costume designer.

Art by CelticBolt. Check him out on dA.

Starting off as just a living statue, this character turned into my main hero, and a real blast to play. I hope you enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Stay tuned for more!

Meet the Cast: Paralaxis

I wanted to write about a City of Heroes character. One of my many toons. I don't have a lot of them (25 of them at the time of this post) but would say I have more characters then maybe the average player. After giving some thought, I decided to go and do a post for each character I had. Now what I'd like to do is give some OOC (out of character) information, some IC (in character) information and maybe my inspiration behind each one. Something a little deeper then the 1025 character count in a characters bio will allow.

So today, I will start with my first hero I really got into.

Meet Paralaxis.

In character information:

Paralaxis is from an alternate dimension. According to Paralaxis, his world is not that much different then ours, except that in his there are no there are no super powered people. In the early 1920's the governments of Paralaxis's earth united to removed any and all super powered people. Then, in the 1980's, a race of unknown aliens attacked the planet in it's conquest of the galaxy. The nations of Earth fell one by one to the aliens' superior technology, and the alien race enslaved man-kind.

Paralaxis was a member of a small group of ex-soldiers, mercenaries and other men-at-arms to join forces to take back Earth for humans who called themselves the Vanguard. Paralxais worked as an inventor, using stolen tech taken from the aliens and creating weapons for the solders on the front lines. Not only strong in mind, Paralaxis proved to be a great solider, and soon commanded his own small strike force. Paralaxis would lead his troops from the front line and attack areas known to hold alien weapons caches.

It was on one such raid did Paralaxis meet the alien warlord, Mal'thor. In hopes of taking Mal'thor down and easing the alien's presence on Earth, Paralaxis fought the alien warlord in single combat in the skies. Seeing the destruction that the human strike force was doing to his troops, and his own condition his fight, Mal'thor opened a portal to another dimension in hopes of retreating and invading another world. But Paralaxis stopped Mal'thor, halting his plans and sending him crashing down to the wreckage of a burning building. In the process though, Paralaxis himself was thrown into the portal, crashing down in the middle of the Hallows.

Seeing humans flying, shooting lasers from their eyes and having green skin came as a shock. He quickly joined the ranks of a super group, know as the Hyperion Force under the leadership of Jon Flag. It is here that Paralaxis learned to be a hero, to accept and to love another and even himself.

While he does still hold a grudge on alien looking creatures, Paralaxis does his best not to attack on sight.

At least, not as often anyway.

Out of Character information:

Paralaxis was my second hero I made for City of Heroes when I first started playing. He started off as a pen and paper character from the game Mutants and Masterminds. His story in MnM was a bit different in that he wasn't from another time, and he relied more on gadgets. His drawback was that his energy blasts were always full powered and with no way to reduce the damage or radius of each blast.

I wanted to make a Batman type of character without really being Batman. When I started playing CoH I fell in love with how closely I could make Paralaxis from the pen and paper game come to life in CoH. Even how I saw his powers in my mind was replicated in the game. (I made this character before you could change the colors of powers) I created a energy and devices blaster and Paralaxis was born.

His name was taken from a club from another MMO, The Matrix Online. I didn't really know a lot about comics when I first started playing and the name just sounded like a hero name.

As for his look, well I had a friend sketch out Paralaxis from my pen and paper game and I based his outfit on that. Actually one of the first days of playing I won a costume contest with the outfit. The only thing that I've changed of the first outfit was adding the cape.

Funny fact: I call myself a costume designer in City of Heroes. I have well over 250 saved outfits for characters, most of them are not even characters I have currently. Just random ideas I save so when I make a new character, I have an idea for an outfit ready to go. But, I can not get a good follow up outfit for Paralaxis. Either it looks to armored, or to hero, or too steam-punk. I just can't get a good look for him.

Paralaxis was my first level 50 toon, and is one of only two of my characters that I have that are level 50. I spent a lot of time role-playing with him, making a lot of good memories with a lot of great friends. I haven't been able to replicate that experience in this game yes.

Lately, I've been putting a lot of thought into remaking Paralaxis into something that I can restart. Do a reboot to his story and find a good SG that will support him. I haven't played him seriously in a few years now, and I log into him only once in a blue moon.

But more on that later. For now, I will leave you with a taste of things to come.

What things may come...

IM NOT DOINS ANYTHING DAD! KTHXBYE!

I've been in a war.

A war with a kitten who loves to eat my plants even though they make her sick. I've given up on trying not to have her up there and just focusing on having her not eat the plants. Hopefully this new stuff I have will keep her from doing just that.

I think he saw me...

Ever had one of those days where you see all your flaws? Like they are just there all on the floor and you can't do anything but stare at them? Your not sure how to fix them, but there they are. That's today for me. It's almost like all my flaws came out and were just like, "Hello, we are here. We just wanted to swing by and let you know, and show you that yes, you still have us even though you've tried not to have us. We may come back later on. Kay! See ya!"

I can't say this is necessary a BAD thing. It's nice to know that I'm human and like others we all have our faults. Sometimes I feel I am too close to my Sagittarian nature. I've been accused of blaming everything on it. And there are times that I do feel I just chalk it up to the stars or the zodiac and call it done. Then there are times when I just look back at the zodiac and see, that is how Sagittarians are.  Can we be more then that? Do the stars really have that much of an effect on a person?

Call it what you want, but it's my believe that there is some sort of rule that in the universe. What that rule is, I have yet to find out but I think that within all this chaos there is some sort of order. Whether it be the stars, the Force or shiny duct tape, I don't know. What I do know is that I suffer from a horrible case of foot-in-mouth disease. I say things and in  my brain it sounds fine. But as soon as I say it, it's like the brain censor took off for a coffee break because I can't shut my mouth fast enough or try to catch my words.

I'd love to over come that. I'd love to not have this part of me affect so many others in my life. People like my friends, my family and the people I chose to be in a relationship with. I feel that I cause them so much drama because of it. And I don't mean to.

I really feel that I'm a lot like Pete's Dragon. Stomping happily though life, starting a few fires here and there but causing no real permanent damage. But it's not like that for others. They see it differently and I'm really trying to control it. It's not as if I mean to, just happens. But I'll try to be there on damage control.

Bring on the rest of the day! :-D

Sunny day

Not sure why but I feel like doing another post. I was going to save it until tomorrow but I thought I might not want to do it tomorrow, or forget all about it. So, why not just do it now?

It's a sunny day here. Which is nice. It's been cloudy and raining the last few days. Was hit by a large snow storm, and that sucked. But not having a job means I don't have to leave the house much so it wasn't that hard to deal with. I just, hate the snow. I'm not really sure what it is about it. I can't really say I had a traumatic experience with it. Since I moved into the area I've had to deal with it, so meaning most of my life. I just never liked it. It's cold, and wet and I slip and it's never fun.

Anyway, it's not snowing today. And I like that. In fact, besides a few clouds you'd almost think it was spring.

Being a cat is hard work...

Well, I guess I don't really have much else to add. Sunny day. Was a nice day. A day of having to really face the facts about what I need to do. And I need to get a job. And get my room mate out of my damn apartment. I need that part of my life, that past to be in the past, and to never return.

Until next time!

Edit: I spelled 'cat' incorrectly.

Coming soon, to a City of Heroes near you!

I log into the City of Heroes Beta servers time to time to see what is ahead and I saw someone with some funky hair. After asking him, he told me there was a Pocket D costume bundle. Sure enough, there it was. I believe it was titled "Valentines Costume Bundle" or something of the like.

It includes new pants for Male/female/huge, a new belt for male/female/huge, a new shiny skirt for females, a shirt option for male/huge (There was only one option at the moment.) as well as a new shirt for females. With the shirts, there are two new chest details, a lose tie and a lose bow-tie. A new jacket and selves for male/female/huge. Also new boots for females that I will be expecting to see all the female toons in the D wearing shortly after release. Two new hair styles, to go with the whole party theme, and a sunglasses raised head detail.

The new options. I didn't add pictures of Huge and I forgot the jacket for females.

So, there we have it. I think it looks like they took some inspiration from IMVU. I'm happy with the lose tie, but disappointed is only with the shirt option. The pants are great, and really up the bar for how clothing and costumes can look in the game.

I know this will be a hot seller, as I personally have asked for parts just like this.

Can't wait for it's release!

Here we are again.

2012

Not really what I was expecting.

I guess I'm worried that all the stories might be true. That this yea may very well be the last. If so, what am I going to do with it? I'd love to travel. To see some place I've never seen before. But that takes money and no job at the moment means no funds. No funds, no fun.

Also finding a job up here is hard. I'm really starting to think that I shouldn't have moved up here. With the massive drama, the rift in friends and no jobs in sight, I think maybe I should have stayed put. At the same time, I've made some nice friends here and I have a great place. So, I guess it's all give and take.

I guess when it comes down to it, I'll have to take a job that I don't really know nor like. I hate that idea of going somewhere when I know I'm not happy there. I've always had jobs I liked. At the same time, maybe this new path could be something I would enjoy. Advice I would give myself would be you have to do what you have to do. You need money to live. And sure, the job isn't right for you, but its for right now and you need to have something to hold you over.

Right now, I've been playing a lot of City of Heroes. I spend more time thinking of characters and creating them then I do playing them. We all find our fun in diffrent ways.

I've been missing Star Wars Galaxies. I keep wanting to get lost in that world again. But I think it is the role play that I'm really missing. I can't seem to find that in City of Heroes.

Indy Kid, observing the city from above.

I know I need to write more in this blog. Just for myself. Maybe just writing will help get my thoughts in order.

Well, here's to 2012. Hope we all make it to 2013